Crunch Time in Sioux City

Today my advisor introduced me to the concept of "crunch time."  Apparently this is what happens when you come back from Thanksgiving break.
You can definitely feel it all around.  Every single one of my classes is starting to prepare for the end of the semester.  For example...

• My Spanish professor has gotten creative by making us create sentences about what we have to do before Christmas Vacation using the subjunctive tense.
• My biology professor has been giving us more candy than usual.  (Should we take this as a hint?)
• The entire music department at my school is in turmoil because our biggest concert of the year is this Friday night.  I guess it's a pretty big deal!
• My advisor has been throwing study tips at my class like there's no tomorrow.  
• I only have about one-third of my giant box of popcorn left.

Crunch time is most definitely upon us.  While it is stressful, frustrating, and sometimes even maddening, I know I can make it through!  I have three words for crunch time: BRING IT ON!

Shout-out to my Grandpa and Granny.  :)

Turkey Time!

It's almost that time of year again!  This Tuesday, I'm heading back to the homeland for Thanksgiving.  In honor of this delicious day, I'd like to make another one of my famous bullet-pointed lists.

Why I'm Excited for Thanksgiving Break

• Let's just get the obvious one out of the way first: there will be a mass amount of turkey and other insanely awesome festive foods.  Goodbye cafeteria food, hello family feast!
• I'll get to see my best friends again!  
• No one questions my ethnicity back home.  Believe it or not...that happens a lot down here.
• I love my dorm, but being back in Minnesota will be a nice break.  Bring on the snow!
• One word: BINGO.  My family plays it together every Thanksgiving, and I can't wait.
• I'm hoping I can catch a hockey game on TV while I'm up there.  It's one of those "I didn't know how much I'd miss it until it was gone" kinds of things.  That's one of the biggest things that's missing down here in Sioux City, if you ask me.

Adding to that last bullet point (and because I just figured out how to post links in my blog), I'd like to share with you a song that's been stuck in my head for quite a few days now.  Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy!

Wild Anthem <--Click it!

The Lucky Ones

Over the past week or so, I've realized how very lucky I am to be in Sioux City!  Here are just a few reasons why.

• It hasn't snowed yet!  I've heard that it's been snowing just about everywhere else, including Des Moines, the Twin Cities, and up in good old Michigan.
• I got to attend a LifeLight concert downtown on Thursday night!  That was an awesome experience.
• Remember in my very first post when I talked about how people in Iowa are super nice?  I still stand by that!  These really are some of the nicest people in the world.  
• I'm right in the middle of a giant, never ending battle between Iowa and Nebraska college football teams.  While I really don't care about either of these teams at all (go Gophers!), it sure is entertaining to watch my friends argue about whose team is better!
• I have great friends and an awesome roommate.  :)

In other news, the countdown to Thanksgiving is on!  I'm excited to come home (because I'm craving turkey), but I know I'll miss all my friends down here.  It's great living in this dorm because there's always someone to hang out with!  I guess we really are the lucky ones.  :)

Dinosaurs, Rotten Apples and Then Some

Hey there, readers!  Every once in a while, things come up in my life that make me think, "Man, I really want to blog about that!  Too bad it's not exciting enough for an entire post."  These thoughts have been accumulating quite a bit since my last post, so I've decided to make you another bullet-pointed list!  So here we go.

What's Been on my Mind Lately

• Every time I learn about dinosaurs in biology or history classes (we learned about them on Friday in my biology class), I feel a little sad that none of us have ever actually seen one.  It's really too bad that they're extinct.  Then I'm reminded that the guy who's trying to recreate them is generally perceived as a psycho maniac, and my heart sinks just a little bit more.
• On a brighter note, I went to the Siouxland Sleep Out on Friday night!  I didn't spend the whole night, but I did meet a couple new people, which was a lot of fun.  I also won coupons for Maid-Rite and Applebee's!  I won't pass up those opportunities to eat somewhere besides the school cafeteria.  :)
• I went to my first senior recital on Saturday, and I quite enjoyed it!  Two senior music majors at my school belted it out for an hour in the auditorium across the street from my dorm, and I must commend them.  They were fantastic!  I look forward to seeing more of these as time goes on.
• I still love my job.
• I'm planning on getting more involved in Spanish club and TOES (Totally on Earth's Side), which is the school's environmental group.  I'm actually really looking forward to being a part of these groups!
• Sadly, the pet apple my roommate and I have outside our door is beyond her last leg.  Her previously luminous green color has been taken over by several brown squishy spots.  However, we're keeping her there until she turns into a pile of applesauce!  
• Oh, I almost forgot!  Not only have I been enjoying going to a local church's weekly college night every Tuesday, but I just joined a Bible study for freshman and sophomore girls on Thursday night.  I can't wait to go back this week!

And that's about all for now!  There are no classes tomorrow, so I'm planning on doing my laundry, getting some homework done, and whatever else floats my boat.  Ciao for now!

The Good Days :)

Have you ever had a day where you woke up in the morning and just knew it was an awesome day?  Well, my friends, today is one of those days.  First of all, it's Thursday.  My only classes on Thursdays are jazz band and Spanish.  Jazz band was cancelled for today because we just had our first concert on Tuesday, so I was planning on only have Spanish at 11:45.  I rolled out of bed around 9:30 and decided to check my emails, only to find that Spanish was cancelled for today and tomorrow!  You know what that means...no classes today!

I'm also just very happy in general today.  I'm looking forward to participating in the Siouxland Sleep Out tomorrow, I've been working on planning out my entire college career, and I've been having a lot of fun with my roommate and neighbors lately!  I'm really having a great time here in Sioux City.

The sun is shining, it's not snowing yet, and the town doesn't smell terrible today.  Happy Thursday, my dear readers!  Enjoy good days like this.  :)

Lack of Topic...And a Great Neighbor

My dear readers, I have a confession to make: I have absolutely no topic for this post.  I thought I should give you an update since I'm back in Sioux City, but I haven't been able to think of anything to write about in the past few days!  So, like any brilliant college blogger would do, I asked my neighbor for some topics. Her suggestions were as follows:

• All the free food we get bribed with on campus.
• What dorm life is really like!
• How annoying it is that when you turn the water on in the shower, it's freezing for a solid ten seconds.
• How convenient it is that we have a step stool in the shower for shaving our legs!

Then I asked her if she had ever read my blog.

She had not.  :)

I really like this neighbor a lot.  Yesterday, she willingly watched my favorite movie for the first time, just because she wanted to know why I love it so much.  She always greets me and randomly hugs me, which is lovely!  And she's not afraid to have a heart-to-heart with me in the bathroom.  No space is too personal for a genuine conversation!  But the most special about this neighbor?  She has a very unique and eccentric fish named Monte.  

Monte, consider this your shout-out.  :)