get on the bus.

Read the stamp on my hand earlier this afternoon. Around lunch time today, there was a Google bus parked in the Newcomb Plaza and a huge tent with lots of computers set up underneath it, demonstrating Google apps.

UVa had recently switched to Gmail for hosting school email, so I suppose Google probably saw this as a good opportunity to educate the student population regarding Google and some free publicity. In front of the tent was a table full of gumball machines, and lots of frisbees and whiteboards being handed out. After the lady up front commandeered someone, you were given a comprehensive tour and guide of how to use Google features. It was really interesting, and I learned a thing or two even though I've been using Gmail since high school. After the demonstration, your hand was stamped with "Get on the bus" and that provided entry to the Google bus parked to the side.

The bus was seriously cool. All the seats were taken out, with a row of couches to either side of the bus. There were whiteboards covering all the walls, so students were frantically scribbling stuff on the walls. There was another person handing out t-shirts (college students pretty much get free t-shirts out of the wazoo, it's a pretty sweet perk!) and get this, there was Rock Band for the Wii set up in the very back. I was impressed and hey, Google just rocks. =)

chuggin' never stops.

So I'll spare you details of how busy I was today and just summarize it with, woke up at 7am, got home at 9pm after a day packed full with class, group meetings, chapter meetings and practice. Between 9m and 12am, I've got to read 200 pages and work on two group projects. Choochoo!

But fun thing (well, maybe for you) that I forgot to mention on Friday is that I s'pose I may be somewhat well known in my block now for a dramatic flair. Back to the kickball tournament. I took off running after I kicked once. Unfortunately, my ball didn't go very far before it was caught. It looked to be a tight race between me and the ball. I looked at the field and saw the ball sailing straight towards my head. I was about two feet away from first base, and couldn't really think of any other way to duck it other than throwing myself to the ground and sliding in for first.

Ouch.

Our North Grounds Park is composed of astroturf with tiny specks of rubber in between the grass. Tis a hard surface to slide on, and I'm glad that I didn't end up bleeding on both knees. I did skin my two legs pretty badly -- but I was safe! =D

it's one.. two.. three strikes you're

at the comm school kickball tournament today! The third year comm schoolers livened things up today with a kickball tournament. I'm sorry to report that my block lost two games, then went home. We had a pretty good showing though, I think everyone came out.

The games were pretty funny because we had a chance to do a double play in one inning, but the guy from Norway caught it, didn't step on the plate, and threw it to the catcher. Then we stopped the game for two minutes to explain to our foreign classmates that you needed to step on the plate first to get the person out. =P In our second game, we came up against a block with an exchange student from Germany. ..an exchange student who also played goalie in DII soccer. So.. he caught everything we threw his way and kicked the ball to the stratosphere. Ahhh well, twas a fun afternoon.

barbeque smoke...

...which I missed out on due to work! Blehhh! The Dean of the comm school had a cookout at his Pavilion today, which I unfortunately came late to because I had to work (I work at Banana Republic). In my defense, I only came 50 minutes late! ..but all the food was gone... Pigs! Pigs! All ob dem! *goes on raving* Haha, but I did manage to catch the tail end of the desserts. Picture this, a scoop of vanilla ice cream in between two chocolate chip cookies, spread out nicely on two tables with another drinks table. Blankets and mats were laid out on the garden, so people were eating and talking on the grass. Quite picturesque eh? Gosh I love being at UVA, probably the only place where professors and Deans will open their homes to students. In my three years here, I've been to the comm school Dean's cookout, an admissions dean's cookout, lunch at the President's (Casteen, not the White House haha) house, and inside another professor's Pavilion. It's truly an academical village here. =)

and the curve is...

widely skewed towards the top. I received my first midterm that I've taken as a comm student back today, and I think I over studied, and definitely know I over freaked out. (As I usually do, I hereby apologize to my sisters, my boyfriend, my stuffed animals, and my forehead. Ah yes, I'm one of those facepalm people.) Most people got above an 80 because this really was a review of what we had taken in prerequisite courses. Or as my professor said, "Alright, real accounting starts... now."

One notable thing today was Michelle Obama's visit to UVA. I walked by Newcomb Plaza when they were setting up the stage and media area, but was stuck in class when she was actually there. I haven't asked around to see what people thought of her, but will do so in chorus practice in an hour. I just thought it was pretty cool that we have so many notable people visiting UVA, in part because of our heritage, but also due to the famous faculty we have in residence here.

Before the Democrat primaries, we had Hillary Clinton (I think she came twice actually) come to one of our economics professor's class and talk to his class. In case you're wondering, this amazing professor is Kenneth Elzinga. Everyone's always trying to get into his classes, even when they're 200-300 people strong in order to accommodate high student demand.

I'm blanking on what other political figures have visited UVA in the past couple years -- I know a couple UVA students read my blog, so anything you guys can add?

With regards to the election in general, I think it's a tossup between the candidates. We have such a wide spectrum of people that no one group really is the majority. Well, maybe one group is. People who have been standing around Grounds asking students if they've registered to vote yet. I've been bombarded with these questions in the past two weeks to the point that I want to have a flaming red sticker to my forehead or something saying yes, I *AM* registered to vote. Yes, I *DO* care about our country. And yes, I *WILL* do my civic duty as an American citizen! *facepalm* But anyways, will you guys be voting?