Monday, October 27, 2008

family weekend choral showcase.

This past weekend was UVa's Parents' Weekend -- Grounds was flooded with tons of parents, siblings and relatives. I did my usual crazy whirl of schoolwork, studying and hanging out with friends, but also performed in the Choral Showcase on Saturday night with the Virginia Women's Chorus.

I have to say, the showcase was pretty amazing -- and not just because I was one of the performers. Four groups performed that night, and then we all came together at the end as one massed choir. To be able to sing in a wonderfully talented group of around 200, in a breathtaking concert hall, to a captivated audience, that's an experience you don't have often in your life. Women's Chorus also sang a song that was composed by our director, and invited an alum of '86 back as a soloist. What really got to me was the end of the night, when we all linked arms and sang the Good Ole Song. At that moment, I was so happy to go to UVa, where truly, all is bright and gay.

The day before Parents' Weekend started was also the Third Year Ring Ceremony. I was (and still am!) pretty excited to get my class ring. It was also a sobering half hour though, sitting underneath the stage of the Rotunda, looking around and seeing classmates that I had already progressed through half of college with. Hmm, if I'm like this now, there will be plenty of wistful entries next year.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

that's a good way to get out of answering a question..

I'm currently sitting in our stock markets lab waiting for class to start. It's actually quite depressing to be in our computer labs these days. In two of the comm school labs, there are stock tickers on one wall and right below the ceiling. As I look up, every single one of them is red. There's literally not a single green stock (indicating stock prices rose). I read on Tuesday in the Cav Daily that there's some talk of reviving an economic stimulus package, hopefully something like that happens soon.

I personally really like all my professors this semester. One in particular, my finance professor, is quite a funny guy. He has quite a dry sense of humor. I'm finally on the tail end of recovering from my sickness, it's just down to coughing a lung out every five minutes now. So while we were sitting in class yesterday, he asked a question. I had something thought out in my head and answered it, and then proceeded to start coughing. Unfortunately, he had a second part to the question that he asked after my response. As my body started revving up for a good cough, he paused and said "Now that's a good way to get out of answering a question... would anyone like to help her out here?" Just thought I'd share.

And my classmate next to me has just added me on Facebook while we've been waiting for roll call. Hahaha.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

oh that scary therapy..

Today I went into Banana Republic fully intending to return a few items. An hour later I walked out with another bulging bag after a mini retail therapy session.

Why is it that people turn to retail therapy, eating comfort food, or doing things that are bad for us when we're stressed? Once we realize what we've done, we become even more stressed when we berate ourselves. If I was a psych major, this would be a good topic for a paper.

As I'm not a psych major, I'll have to shrug and avoid glancing at my receipt, hehe. But beware of other trap -- eBay (or evilBay as I call it). It seems that a lot of people fall victim to purchasing a lot of random things off eBay or other sites their first year. Again, good topic for psych paper. Relishing freedom from parents and seeking to exercise financial control over our lives? Or for the first time we don't have to explain our purchases to someone so we can go nuts with what we like? Or maybe it's another coping mechanism for being thrown in a new environment? Any thoughts from you guys? Just be careful and don't get too trigger happy with the mouse! Try to shock yourself into some sense by glancing at your online bank statement everyday (that works too well sometimes, especially after I buy textbooks, hahaha).

Monday, October 20, 2008

mmm lots of good food.

Yesterday was the concluding day of my sorority's Parents' Weekend. For Sunday, I planned brunch to take place at my sorority house and a general open house for people to tour through as they wished. What that entailed was getting up at around 8 am to make quiches, mini crab cakes, and bacon wrapped scallops (my personal favorite out of the bunch, get some at the closest Sam's Club). I had the delight of discovering that our oven didn't work, so I commandeered all the microwaves in the house to microwave all food that needed to be cooked. It was quite funny to see people running around with handfuls of quiches. However, 10 minutes before brunch began, the oven decided to work again. Oh electronics.. I had a mini heart attack when Jimmy Johns (my favorite sandwich/sub place) called to say that the sandwiches would be 10 minutes later than planned.

Overall the event went quite well -- and if I have time I'll figure out how to upload a few pictures for the blog. After a quick clean up, I ran off to a group meeting. I mentioned before that my Commerce block is sponsored by Rolls Royce. First semester third year, groups have to work on one massive year end project for their sponsors. Our project this year is to present recommendations for investing in two different types of engines. At the end of the semester, Rolls Royce executives will actually come to school and listen to our presentations. In previous years, they've sent really senior executives. Imagine arguing the finer points of the financial statements with the CFO of a company. Eep! Haha.

And of course, go Hoos for the weekend win! Unfortunately I was busy setting up for another weekend event and didn't catch the end of the game. I would have loved to rush the field. =D

Saturday, October 18, 2008

almost a 'real adult'

Over the past two days, I've felt like almost a 'real adult'. Even though we're legally adults in college, it's still very much a surreal world. Our lives pretty much revolve around school and homework, and we often get caught in the college bubble where everything is fine and dandy (economic crisis? What crisis? Haha.)

However, I've traveled out of the college bubble the last two days to Reston, VA for an office visit/interview. (Hi guys! Maybe I should leave this url off my resume.. haha.) What to expect for an office visit: dinner, an overnight stay, and lots of interviews the next day at the office. Dinner was great, I definitely stuffed myself on my grouper stuffed with crab dish. I found myself intrigued by the mixing happening before we sat down though, it bore similarities to sorority rush (more about that later).

The next day at the office, I met other fellow applicants and learned a lot more about the company. One of the most important part of the day was a series of interviews with various executives in the company. I was really impressed by how seriously companies take office visits. Executive directors, directors, managers, etc were amongst some of the people who were freeing up their schedule for interviews.

Somewhere along the line, perhaps when I was looking out of the car window dozing off, it struck me that this felt like what I would be doing for the rest of my life. Commuting to work, going on recruiting events, forming relationships with coworkers and superiors, thinking about mortgages and such... well, the last one's rather far off in the distance, for now. It was just a 'hmmm' moment. I'm... not sure how I feel about leaving an academic environment, after all, graduating from college at the ripe age of 22 doesn't mean much in terms of world experience. We'll have spent all our lives in school, worrying about tests and if that cute boy will ask me out for the school dance. Hmm. Should be an interesting adventure.

And now, I must dash off to setting up for my sorority's Parents' Formal. This weekend is our designated Parents' Weekend, and as Parents' Club Chair I'm in charge of the festivities for these three days.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

it's a beautiful fall day...

Yet a sad day for me as today marks the end of our long weekend AKA fall break. I had the delight of having all my midterms beforehand, so I was actually able to enjoy fall break, spend time with friends, boyfriend, and go to Busch Gardens for a day.

Trip to Busch Gardens was absolutely fantastic. The park was decked out for Halloween and after dark there were special effects all over the place. Mist, eerie lighting, random screams and monster noises, staff dressed up as witches and werewolves... I didn't know whether to laugh or inch away in horror when a witch materialized next to me and my friends and asked us where we wanted to go when we were peering at the map in the darkness. I did manage to go on alllll the roller coaster rides except the Griffon. I still can't do straight down drops. =( My new favorite thing to do is roller coasters at night, it's surprisingly less scary and a lot more fun.

And I do apologize but I have to jet again, I have an office visit tomorrow and some reading to do before that. Work never stops in the Commerce school... I'm actually slightly ready for this semester to be over just because of the sheer workload, but more of my life later.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

oh ze walking dead am i...

Contrary to how I sound, I'm actually really healthy. Well, I still have ear infections in both ears, capillaries have burst in both eyes so I look scary, and I sound like Frankenstein. I have to go to several interviews this week. I'm.. sure I'll be memorable. ..hahaha.. ><"

But, more on my life later after what is termed 'hell week'. Midterms coming up tomorrow and Thursday! Wish me luck.

Friday, October 3, 2008

*cough hack wheeze* x 1000.

Good thing is I'm no longer lying in bed burning up with fever or tossing and turning because my body is too achey to let me sleep. Bad thing is now I'm hacking and wheezing endlessly. I think I almost prefer the fever. =P

So!! I am vastly looking forward to the end of next week where I will be over three midterms, 10 thousand assignments, and interviews! Fall break is almost here, *reaches out desperately with both hands*. Whoever said that third year comm schoolers have no life wasn't joking. All I can do now is plan out my perfect fourth year (12 credits, lots of short classes for self enrichment and fun, and lots of time for job hunting). I can't believe third year is 1/4 over already. Meeeeeep.

Someone in the comm school had the unholy idea of making all the third year comm schoolers get up and attend a forum at 8:00 am today. Urgh. It was a pretty amazing forum though, titled "Investment Strategies in Turbulent Times". A lot of famous finance authorities, entrepreneurs, and investors came. Almost all of them graduated from the comm school! I was quite in awe that I have the privilege to attend such a great school.

Unnnfortunately, the good that came out of that forum is temporarily wiped away by the six hour take home accounting midterm I just did. As it was take home we had the discretion of breaking it up into chunks or doing it all at one go. However, my professor did describe it as one "painful, awful, soul pulling" session if we tried to it all at once. I'd always love to sit down and get something done, so of course I went that route. The way the take home research exam works for accounting is you get six hours to teach yourself the concepts and apply them on the exam. It started off easy, so easy I thought they were trick questions and actually emailed my professor wondering about them. Near the end though, the questions had me pulling my hair out in frustration. Several of us commented that our professor had an evil grin on his face when he was talking about the exam.

Eh? Take home exam? What's this, you say. Another by product of the honor code at UVa. Those of you just joining my blog now -- UVa has an honor code that means all students do not cheat, lie or steal. If we do these things, there is a single sanction at UVa which means we are expelled. The whole process is very formal, with investigations and trials, and we hire teams of lawyers to make sure our processes are fair. It might seem harsh, but it's definitely source of pride for many students and it has generated wonderful byproducts such as take home exams. Where else would I be able to lie on my bed for six hours, occasionally staring out the window, and write my exam?