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.

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.

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.

*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?

fever has got me good..

I do love this song, and it's also quite an accurate representation of my life right now. I can feel my eyes glazing over and a fever creeping up. =( Never fear! I am almost singlehandedly drinking all the contents of the water cooler in my sorority house so I should beat this pretty soon.

I absolutely adore the weather at UVa right now! Fall is moving in so the days are still hot and sunny, but there's a slightly chilly bite in the air. I'm so excited for the leaves to start turning colors soon, autumn and winter are my absolute favorite seasons at the University.

I had my first employer interview today (hello if you're reading this!) -- it took place at the back of our football stadium, Bryant Hall. This building is mostly used for recruiting, whether sports or on Grounds interviewing. I always get a rush of school spirit whenever I'm in this building because there's walls and walls of our athletic feats, pictures of happy fans, and all the accomplishments and medals our teams have won. Woot UVa!


..but alright, our football team did have a pretty humiliating loss over the weekend. Our men's soccer hasn't lost a single game yet! I was at a meeting with several Korean educators yesterday, they wanted to hear from three or so student leaders on Grounds about our pride at UVa.

I addressed this a bit before in my debunking-the-myth-that-all-UVa-students-are-pretentious post. One of them asked, would we still have still pride if our sports teams aren't that good? I answered yes because our pride isn't just founded on athletics. It's really the whole package. Whether it's our strong academics and renowned graduate schools and hospital, or the feeling of a community here, or our beautiful campus, or the friendly Charlottesville community, or the long history and tradition behind the University, or our wonderful weather, or the great student-faculty interaction, or... etcetc. You get the point. Multiple things make up the students' pride in our school, so even if our football team does keep losing game after game, we're still happy and still have plenty of school pride. (Doesn't hurt when all our other sports are so strong! =P)