Wednesday, September 17, 2008

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?

Sunday, September 14, 2008

career day.

So the big thing that happened over my weekend was the Commerce Career Day! These are quite important as they're well, where you get a job and meet employers. This year we had it in the John Paul Jones Arena, a change that I welcomed because there was just so much more space. In previous years we had it in the Newcomb Hall Ballroom with some spillage into the South Meeting Room. The small area quickly got stifling hot, and people kept bumping into each other in the walkways.

Being our basketball arena, JPJ was very spacious and had four aisles of employers. In the three hours I was there, I managed to visit 10 employers and not spend too much time in line. I also came away with quite an amount of free stuff, ie pens, cups, flash drives, bags, wireless mouse, highlighters etc., so that was a nice perk as well. A career fair is basically a time when lots of employers come, set up booths and have a continuous meet and greet where you can ask tons of questions, drop off your resume, and hopefully make a good enough impression on the employer to be called back for an interview.

With career fairs, on of the most important things is to have a nice spiel about yourself and be able to talk intelligently with the employers. You don't want to spend half an hour waiting in line, only to go up and say "Uh.. hi yeah so.. I'm... Matt. What's your company about?" ...reallll bad impression to make. I was comparing notes with some friends afterwards and they were laughing about how some first years had come (which is fine by the way) and basically walked around, grabbing free stuff and asking the most inane questions (um, not as fine. Definitely not.)

I'd been going to career fairs as a first year (haha yes, I was probably one of those clueless people that upperclassmen laughed about), so I was more or less ready for this one. I did my homework on companies I wanted to visit, printed out a list so I wouldn't forget, and had around 25 copies of my resume printed on nice cardstock. Although standing around and talking for three hours doesn't sound to hard, it was still reallllyyy tiring. I would continue rambling but I must go study for an accounting midterm tomorrow and assignment due on Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

chorus practice.

Just came back from chorus practice, thus I'm in a really good mood. Even though I wake up at 7 am and don't get home until 9 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, the last part of my day is always chorus practice. I love to sing, so this always puts me in a good mood. And what puts me in an even better mood is.. singing lots and lots of high notes. =P I'm first soprano in my choir, so nothing gives me more joy than blasting them high notes. Hehehe alright, I'm a bit odd.

But speaking of my music history, I also play the flute. I played in UVa's Baroque Orchestra as first flute my first semester first year (that's a lot of 'firsts'..), and what was amazing was that I had to play on the baroque version of the flute for the orchestra. The school lent me the baroque flute for the entire semester -- it was a really interesting experience! I didn't continue after my first year though because it actually hurt my hand to play the baroque version because the holes were spaced differently. It was a nice experience to have.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

poobah.

I'm putting off studying yet more for my midterm next Monday... I think I'll go to bed at 11pm tonight, that sounds like a gloriously early time. Sorry for those of you looking for some deep, meaningful insights! Today was a day that I got done at 2pm and have been vegging out ever since. We all need one of these days.. ah. =D

Monday, September 8, 2008

my weekend...

Alright, some of you may think -- just who is this girl that she always claims she's so busy?? So here's a rundown of what I did this weekend.

Technically, my weekends begin on Friday because the comm school doesn't have classes on Friday. Soo... Friday morning, I woke up, did some studying for a midterm in two weeks, went out to a club exec meeting, then shut myself in the comm computer lab for four hours working on an assignment due today. That night I went to an ethnic organization's first general meeting, then promptly went to another org's first general meeting because my friends threatened to hang me if I didn't come out and support them, hehehe. After that, met up with friends from first meeting and went to dinner (Just Curry on the Corner offers excellent food at very excellent prices). And after that I went to one of my friend's house from the club and went to a huge Asian party. It was really interesting to see how young the first years looked (alright, I don't know if that was interesting.. or depressing..), and listen to the myriad of Asian languages. So that was Friday.

Saturday, I woke up and bummed around until 4pm. After that I buckled down and studied until 9 pm (oh yes, I wanted to puke out accounting information by then). After that, I went to a friend's place and watched.. Deep Space 9. =D I personally am a TNG fan, but do see the allure of DS9. Went to bed at 2am.

Sunday. Woke up at 9:30am, studied until 12 pm when I went to work (I work at a retail store during the year). Came back at 4pm, went back out at 5:30 pm to perform at a benefit concert for victims of the Chinese earthquake. Came back at 8:00 pm to work on an assignment that was due today.

And thaaaat was my weekend.