end of the first week!

And whoo, what a week! I was running around from 9:30 am to about 9:00 pm everyday, but gloriously enjoying it! Apart from the requisite classes, I was also going back and forth between my clubs and hanging out with friends.

Some of the notable things that always happen the first week of class include the activities fair, Rotunda Sing, and of course the first weekend. The Student Activities Fair was held on the Lawn this year, which I actually didn't attend because I was holding office hours for one of my positions. I really wonder what that sight looked like... hmm. But the fair is when all 500+ student organizations at UVA turn out en masse, set up tables and posters, and try their best to bribe -- er, convince students to join them. =P I say bribe because since the fair usually happens on a really hot day, lots of organizations have freezepops or chilled drinks. "Free freezepop if you sign up on our mailing list!" Haha, quite crafty eh?

I'm actually dashing off to a club event soon, I'm co-chair of a peer mentoring organization that's holding a scavenger hunt today. (Any of you who are reading this and are first years, it's horribly easy to figure out who I am from this, haha. =P )

it's the last first second day of class...

Here's your resident morose feeling... dare I say it? ...fourth year (ugh, cue shudder of horror). Well, pledge to myself: I won't think about it anymore. I'm going to wring the last of what I can from college!

I'm supremely happy with my classes this semester, the professors all seem nice and the material very interesting. I'm taking three accounting classes (because I'm planning to sit for the CPA) and two management classes. Accounting Information Systems (more concept and computer based than numbers based), Cost Accounting, and Federal Taxation I compose of the accounting classes. Negotiations and Strategic Management Consulting compose of the management classes. I'm really impressed by all my professors, some have an amazing work experience, and others are movers and shakers in their subject fields. I have a big grin on my face just thinking about it. (Okay, I know, I'm a dork).

I.. unfortunately also have homework due tomorrow that I need to go work on. I haven't had a chance to really sit down and read the book until tonight because I've eaten every meal since I got back with a different group of friends, and held around six Honor Loan office hours over two days. So, apologies about my pathetic update, I've got to dash to do work.

life can't possibly get anymore hectic than this. @_@

Apologies for the lateness of my update. Since I last posted, my internship's finished, I've gone up to NOVA for a few days, gone back down to C'ville to move into my sorority house, and will be headed to University of Richmond for a sorority retreat, and have been dealing with various extracurricular committments out of the wazhoo since then.

This summer flew by, it seriously, seriously did. People say that time passes by faster the older you get, and you know what? I definitely agree with them now. At the beginning of this summer I thought there would be all the time in the world to savor my last free summer, but whoosh! It's gone by like smoke.

I'm gearing up for my fourth and final year (of which I'm terrified about because I really don't want to graduate), and I bet I'll be approaching a lot of events with wistfulness and nostalgia. Everytime something happens, it'll be the "last time" I'm doing something like this. Moved in for the last time. Witnessed first years at orientation for the last time. Looked at buildings being constructed that I'll never get the chance to use. Ah, good ole TJ's University. It's treated me well.

For those of you entering your senior year in high school, I hope you embrace it and live it to the fullest. (I also hope you've started your applications already! And certainly those essays, you'll need to spend quite an amount of time on those.) I'll offer some application advice later if anyone's interested (and feel free to shoot me a question in the comments area), but at the risk of sounding like an old geezer, I wish I was in your shoes. =)

clubbin' it in c'ville

Since one of my highschool friends was visiting over the weekend, I took him and met up with a bunch of people that I'd just found out was in town all summer long (hah, I seem to have done that a lot in recent days. Oops) to a club on the downtown mall called the X-Lounge. There, I met up with even more people that I hadn't realized were in town. (I ended up losing my voice the next morning because I'd spent most of the night screaming delightedly in excitement and bellowing conversations to each other over the music.)

So that was my wonderful weekend interlude (if only I'd realized sooner that I had about eight more friends in town! Sigh.) -- which brings me to today's topic of Charlottesville's night life.

Let's not sugarcoat it. For a lot of us, it's our first time away from parents and we're bound to go quite a bit crazy. When we turn 21, we can go crazy legally. However, you might find that venues are quite lacking. This is one part of C'ville that I'm not too fond of. Other than a couple bars on the corner and a smattering on the downtown mall, you really have nothing else to choose from. Many students default to apartment or frat parties, but if you're looking for a place to dance in which the bass is thrumming through your bones and you won't get a noise complaint, you'll have to look hard. This is one of the advantages of a big city that C'ville lacks. This is not to say that our bars are boring though, there's still quite a few gems if you know where to go.

But then again, a surrounding city's nightlife really shouldn't be your main deciding factor in choosing a college. You've got the rest of your life to party, but you only have four short years for college.

this is such a bad year...

for my glasses. I came back to school after winter break with three pairs. That should be enough to last me a year, right? Unfortunately, looks like I'm a lot clumsier than I thought. In the course of eight months, I've had a sorority sister step on a pair, smashed my laptop onto another pair when it slid off my bed, and then stepped on my last pair two nights ago. Oh. my. gosh. T_T

And to top it off, my laptop monitor flickered, and then died last night. At least this is all happening before school starts. Sigh. I'm swinging by BestBuy on the way home from work to see if there's any hope, but I'll probably have to end up buying a new laptop. I've used HP all my life and want to switch to a new laptop, any recommendations? I want a widescreen 12"-14", preferably LED screen, 2GB+ RAM, 250GB+ HD, discrete graphics card, three USB ports, and hopefully SATA (didn't think I'd ever need it, but boy it saved my life when my external HD died last summer. Yeah. My MyBook somehow got corrupted and almost took five years worth of pictures with it. Scary...). I really want to stay below $1000, but my list of qualifications may make that extremely difficult.

Morale of my post for those of you going to college (and hopefully going to UVA!), make sure you're current on all prescriptions and eyewear, and bring an extra two pairs just in case. As for laptops, Cavalier Computers offers a pretty good deal in which they offer to fix all problems with your laptop in your college tenure if you buy from them (quality of service however... I have heard some complaints from friends). You don't necessarily need the latest and flashiest, just something functional. Now is a good time to buy, when there are so many good laptops for $700.

Excited about college? It's full throttle ahead in three weeks!