It’s October 31st, Halloween. This is my favorite holiday of the year! I guess because of the atmosphere and good memories I associate with it make me love it so much. I just live for the autumn smell and feeling, the chilliness and pretty leaves. The campus looked real good for a quick minute, but the leaves lost their vibrant colors surprisingly fast. I guess it still looks nice, but I just love autumn all around so I’m just loving this time of the year.

As far as Halloween goes, it seems like a lot of the students kind of copped out as far as dressing up during the day. I figured a lot more people would show up to classes in costume. I didn’t, guilty as charged, but that’s because the costume I got for last weekend was a rental that I returned on Monday. The weekend was pretty fun- me and a group of friends were the Village People members. I was the sailor (yes, there was a sailor, sometimes the army guy would be one), and I had a $25 sailor shirt rental. $25! It was real nice though, and came with a whole outfit, but I had already bought an $8 hat and $5 tiny, tiny girl sweatpants that I rolled into short shorts. Yup, all of us Village People dressed pretty revealingly, and it was… sexy (ugh) to say the least. Honestly, it was pretty hilarious, but for the sake of my friends’ pride I’m not going to post a picture. But for Halloween tonight, I’m looking to maybe do some old-fashioned trick-or-treating and relive my childhood!

Happy Halloween Everyone! I work at the Admissions Office as you all know and when I walked in this morning we had a host of little kids trick-or-treating and it was the cutest thing ever. It was actually the first time I got to pass out candy and I loved it. Everyone is in orange today and the spirit of Halloween is high here at BW:)
In regards to Megan’s post about scheduling, it was extremely weird that I didn’t have to schedule while all my friends had to. I actually looked to see if I was assigned a scheduling time when everyone was talking about it. It was just a force of habit, hehe! I guess it still hasn’t sunken in that I am graduating in 7 weeks and will not be at BW after December. That sounds scary so I’ll stop at that! Have a good day!

On Monday I had my very last advising appointment. Every student at BW is assigned an advisor (usually a professor you have for several classes) that you meet with at least once a semester to set up your schedule. My schedule for the spring looks fantastic: music history 3, philosophy, geology, techniques of relaxation, and then of course horn lessons and all the ensembles. Half of my music ed class is student teaching right now and the other half will be student teaching next semester. Everyone who is in classes right now says that this is the first semester that they really feel like a college kid. I’m starting to miss being the student in classes and I’m especially missing seeing my friends and professors all the time, so I’m really looking forward to having one last, less busy semester to enjoy at college.

This week and the following are probably the busiest weeks of this semester. Not to mention I’ve felt that way every week, hehe but these two make the top. I have meetings almost every night this week, we had a speaker last night after my night class, I have a meeting for the Emerging Leaders Retreat tonight, a group meeting for a class tomorrow, a break on Thursday, a swim meet on Friday and one on Saturday too. I have a quiz on Thursday, a two page paper due tonight and next week I have a quiz on Monday night, a meet on Tuesday and a 25 page paper due on Thursday. Sounds impossible doesn’t it?! Really though being in college teaches you how to manage time and get everything done. I am stressed right now, but I know that once I get down to doing work and finish it I will be fine.
On a lighter note, this past weekend we celebrated Halloween at BW and I dressed up as a strawberry shortcake:) My favorite part of the outfit were the long green and white stripped socks and the hat:) Once I upload pictures from my camera (when I find time to do that) I will put some on here.

I apologize right now for the multiple blogs in the future about teaching.. but it’s what is taking up most of my time right now.
Monday was my first day as the teacher and it went pretty well. Mondays are pretty routine though, so it was a good way to ease me into the process. I kind of just took over where the teacher would have by giving them spelling words and watching presentations… not much ACTUAL teaching going on, but a good start.

Today we started a lesson on personal narratives… I know, I know, sounds boring. Actually, it was great! We briefly went over the definition and some examples and then we did a group activity to help the kids brainstorm. They formed two lines facing each other and when I said go and gave them a topic, they had to discuss it with the person across from them. After three minutes the lines rotated and a new topic was announced. They loved it because it was a day of telling stories to their friends. It got them thinking of different topics they could write about and helped them understand the importance of the “pre-writing” stage, something most people like to skip over.

After my class, my teacher met with me to tell me how much she liked my lesson and that she thinks I am doing a great job! It was awesome to hear because I had been nervous about taking over her class!

So, this isn’t going to be a post about a crazy party I went to or anything like that. But let me back up. I DID attend a party - but it was hosted by my girlfriend’s high school teachers. Her drama and english teacher only lives about ten minutes away from here and invited us to his house for a friendly gathering with plenty of food and costume fun. It was nice to meet a lot of her teachers; many of these people were the ones that directly influenced her to become an education major. I had a great time talking about directing plays and playwriting with the drama instructor - but this is all besides the point!

What I meant to start with was I attended MNM and Allies’ annual Halloween Dance. I wanted to tour the Haunted Balcony, as well as see all the crazy costumes students came up with. I saw a lot of funny, creative, and realistic costumes - there was a great turn out! One of the other reasons I went to the dance was because I had to see what my friend’s costume looked like - he went as ME! He kindly asked me for my old MNM shirt, my book bag, and wore a headband (which I have been known to sport at dances). He was dedicated enough to not wear his glasses the majority of the time, because without them he looked like me (especially when he squinted when he smiled).

It was funny to be around him because people continually were asking for a “Joe Levy” photo and they couldn’t get over how similar we looked (which is weird because he and I both don’t think we look that much alike, we’re just both atheltically built with short hair and a nice smile ). Anyways, it was a fun time and I was flattered to have someone dress as me - it made for quite the joke throughout the evening.

Nothing new in my world. I haven’t had a test or anything due in over a week. It’s actually nice to enjoy life without having to worry about something is due :). On another note I’ve been playing Mario Strikers on Nintendo Wii with the other RA on my floor like crazy. If you have a Wii system I really recommend it, it’s by far the best game on the system so far. Today I spent 3 hours playing Wii and I almost forgot about meeting people for dinner. This Friday is culture night; there is going to be food, music and talent from all around the world. On my floor alone I have someone from England, Germany, China, Ghana, and two people from Nepal. It should be a good time; I will take pictures to share

So, this weekend was a bunch of fun. I went with my International Organizations:Case Studies class to LEIMUN. I was Venezuela on the Disarmament and International Security Committee. Ellen and Steve played Peru on two different Security Councils (there were a total of three). Ivonne was also Venezuela but on the Model World Health Organization and Sam was South Africa on one of the Security Councils. Then Kevin was South Africa on the Legal Committee and Shaun was Iran in the Organization of Islamic States. So, there was a total of 7 of us. But for everyone who doesn’t know how Model UN works, let me give a brief explanation. Colleges (or High Schools) get assigned a country or countries to portray in simulations of the United Nations. So for weeks now, we had been preparing for LEIMUN, doing research, etc. This past weekend, we went to the conference. There are many committees of the United Nations, and only certain ones were simulated. I was the only person from BW on DISEC and it was fun, because as Venezuela, the part I had to play was to bash the US and its allies and really any else that disagreed with me. Not that I loved ranting against the US, but it was a challenge.
Sometimes it was difficult, as we were “in session” for 11 hours Friday. In session means that the committees were meeting and you had to follow the rules of the UN (like motioning for a 15 minute moderated caucus, moderated by the Chair (or one of the other countries), for the purpose of…). Of course, there was the note passing, usually used to clarify points of a speech or make alliances. I thought it was funny when DISEC was discussing the Illicit Trade of Small Arms and Light Weapons and the UK decided that, behind the back of the US sitting between us, we would discuss a trade for some RPGs (unofficial of course). Or the note from the UK about aliens attacking from space when we were talking about Weaponization of Outer Space. (There are set topics for the Committees so people can research them before hand).
But not all the time was spent “in session.” Thursday night was a “professional party” which wasn’t that great. But the halloween party Saturday night was a blast! It went from 8-Midnight (although it didn’t really get started until 930ish). About half the people showed up in costume, but the dance floor was full for a good two hours. The SG was from BW and she, and the rest of the people running LEIMUN, invited everyone to continue partying elsewhere (as most delegates were older than twenty). We only had awards Sunday and got back by Sunday afternoon. I highly recommend joining Model UN if anyone is interested in International Relations. Just an fyi though, you have to have taken United Nations 215 to participate. But I still suggest it!

Well, apparently my Bio121 class and I did so awful on our last test that our teacher is giving us a retest on wednesday. I’m torn if i like this or not. I mean, it was very very nice of her to let us retake it and all, but i don’t want to retake it this week. Guitar Hero 3 just came out and i’m going to a concert tuesday night. Plus now i have to RElearn it all (learn it for the first time). But i thank her for the opportunity, just bad timing. Yes, i am complaining about the nicest thing a teacher has done all year, by the way.

Speaking of biology, last week on friday, there was pre-med day in the bio building. I love days like that. I can only speak for bio, but i’m sure the other departments have them. The bring in people from grad schools to talk about what you need to do to get in. I’m not sure bout med school or not, but grad school for sure. So, on the expense of the school (aka, your parent’s checkbooks) they really help you figure out what to do and what you need prepare if grad school is in your future. Well, that’s all i got. I’ll let you know bout grad/med school sometime. Later my followers

Hello everyone– My apologies for not writing in a long time! I have been so busy with everything going on lately, and I need to get back to blogging every now and then. I can’t believe how fast the first half of the semester went. I just scheduled for my last semester at Baldwin-Wallace, which is kind of sad! I was hoping that I would have somewhat of an easy schedule, but because of my trip to Australia last semester I am a little behind. I had a few tests, papers and projects that were due last week, and on Saturday I took the practice LSAT offered at B-W. LSAT is the test that is required for acceptance into law school. It was so hard! It was a great opportunity to take it though because it gave me a real-life example of what to expect on the test. I am kind of stressing out about the law school application process because I really need to get rolling on that and sometimes it seems that there aren’t enough hours in a day! I will get to it though, and I have to prepare to take the REAL LSAT in December, ahh! There are just so many things going on and I am really looking forward to Christmas break which is 2 months away. I can’t believe it is nearing the end of a fun, four year journey and I am moving ahead to the “real-world’!