the tension that you can cut...

with a computer. My fellow classmates were very tense in class today, as this was the day when most of my classmates signed up next semester's classes. Unfortunately, the exact signup time for many people fell right during class, so a lot of people brought their laptops and surreptitiously clicked away. You can always tell if someone got all the classes they wanted by the smiles or grimaces on their faces. Y'see, the bad thing about registering for classes at UVA is that the only way you can really see if a class has space or not, prior to actually trying to sign up, is to go on our Course Directory website. Well, that website only updates twice a day. So when hundreds of people are signing up for classes at the same time, that class that you desperately need for your major had 20 empty spots... well... it's actually full.

*cue screaming fits of rage*

It's actually kind of funny, watching my roommate stride around angrily around the room, muttering and shaking her fist. For all her anger though, she's not serious. At least, I think so. I try to keep harmful objects out of her way when she starts threatening to hurt the person who took the last spot in a prerequisite class.

Alright. I've been watching Made of Honor with a friend and my boyfriend. Being a chick flick, this is kind of going over my boyfriend's head. My friend though, insists on interpreting every romantic thing into cynical sarcasm. Boo! Some little UVA madness. =)

i need to imprint my agenda on my brain...

Because I did something quite silly today. I got up for my 8 am class, showered and went out the door, walked to the comm school, looked in bewildered uncomprehension at the empty classroom, and realized that the first part of class had been cancelled today. Hahaha whoops!

I'd say class cancellation is a.. moderately common thing at UVa. Usually it's because the professor is out of town or it's right before a major holiday (aka Thanksgiving), but don't think you get a break on work, but you're expected to do reading regardless. Pbthhh!

So after that I decided to sit outside (on this chilly, chilly day) and eat my breakfast. It was a rare idyllic moment that I wish I could have captured forever. My view at the Newcomb bus stop was only slightly marred by the sight of the broken gates in front of me.

At UVa we have three gates on McCormick road to cut down on traffic during the day. This always causes a problem when people don't realize the gate will only go up for UVa vehicles, drive up to the gate, and then just sit there glaring at the gate for a while. I had the privilege of witnessing two trucks, three buses and one trolley backed up behind a Honda Accord on the first day of school because the parent in question refused to move. =S Another sight often seen is broken/snapped gates. For some reason, drivers seem to like to ram through the gates and just break them. I also saw this on the first day school -- a tractor (of all vehicles) just kept driving into the gate until a bus driver yelled at him. I personally don't know if I'd ever drive my car through a gate, I'd be worried about damaging my car. *shrug* Moral of the story is? If you come for a campus visit, please don't ram through the gates, and watch out for pedestrians. Drivers here are nice enough to stop for a student even if they're five feet away from the crosswalk that students have just gotten into the habit of crossing the street without even looking. Yeah.. it's a bad habit.

go vote!

Not to sound like the hordes of people who have been out on the streets the past couple of months urging people to register and vote, but really, do go vote! I just came back from the polls myself, and the feeling of going out and casting your vote has really swept UVa Grounds.

Sidewalks for the past couple of weeks have been covered in chalk, urging students to support one candidate or another. As I've walked down the lawn, stickers and posters decorated the doors of almost all the lawn rooms. There have been quite a number of rallies and even Michelle Obama came to speak at UVa. Our own renowned politics professor Larry Sabato has given his predictions for the outcome of the election, and everyone in general has been gearing up for today.

Today, vans were picking up students from all over Grounds to bring them to their polling stations. There's also a UTS making rounds bringing students to polling stations. Although students didn't get a day off class today, professors have been understanding and encouraged to accommodate students' voting schedules.

Speaking of not getting a day off class, there has been a petition in the last couple of weeks and much discussion of UVa granting a day off classes to allow students to vote. I personally thought it was a great idea. What better way to show that you truly care about the country than by allowing students to take a day off class? However, the thing is not all students who attend UVa are voting in Charlottesville. We have 1/3 out of state and 5% international. Although we have 2/3s instate, most of those students are probably sending in absentee ballots back to their homes. So I guess in the end it wouldn't make that much sense for all students to get one day off class for the benefit of a few who are voting in Charlottesville.

But after all that rambling, for those of you who can, please do go vote! No matter who you support, your vote does count.

and to make up for my absence..

Here's a third post today. I was a little busy last week with some minor projects to complete, homework to hand in, and a midterm to take. This week takes the cake though, with three midterms, one speech, and one group presentation. In college, you definitely learn how to deal with high stress/pressure environments and how to seemingly turn out an unholy amount of work in record time.

The purpose of this post however, isn't to yammer on about how busy I am, but to share with you guys the big event of last week. I went to Washington DC for another office interview, and have to say it has been my most enjoyable one thus far.

I'll try not to give away too many clues who the company was, but it was a very big company. As usual with office visits, you're treated to dinner the night before and meet a lot of the people in a casual setting. Since DC is a big hub of business action, my dinner actually coincided with several other companies' and the maitre d had her hands full directing people in six different directions. Dinner went well, and I really enjoyed my conversation with the person I sat next to. I pretty much just drilled him with questions all night -- in interviews, whether for officer positions, jobs, or college, definitely try to have some quality questions. They don't have to be super meaningful and ask about someone's definition of life, but really try to picture yourself going there and see if you have any possible conflicts with a particular system or anything like that.

The next day however, disaster struck. I checked out of the hotel and got on the shuttle (and met some people who'd interviewed with me at some other companies!). When we came to a big building, I got off with everyone else. As the elevator doors opened though, the name on the wall was definitely not the company I was interviewing with. ..oops. If this ever happens to you, don't panic. The receptionist was really nice and mentioned it happens often and quickly got the shuttle to turn around for me.

The rest of the day was standard presentations and interviews. Once again, the company had high ranking executives come speak to us. I met several partners, managing directors and managers -- companies definitely take the interview process very seriously. I really enjoyed my conversations at this company and was pleasantly challenged on some questions in my third interview. They stuffed us with more good food (for office visits, I'm thinking of recommending not eating at all beforehand. I barely ate anything before the company meals during the two days but still felt like my eyes were going to pop out afterwards. Mmm deliciousness.) and sent us off with some goodie bags.

While the visit was wonderful, getting there wasn't as enjoyable. Those of you considering going to smaller college towns, keep in mind the available transporation there. Charlottesville doesn't lack transportation, but what we have is kind of... rather... inconvenient. There's only one train to DC everyday, so that meant I had to get on a 7 am train for an event that began at 7 pm. (Good thing I chose the morning block for comm school classes, I'm used to getting up this early now. =D )

Whenever you travel anywhere for an interview, make sure you budget plenty, plenty of time. Delays are really common for trains, the kind that will go upward to three hours. =S As I was waiting to go back to Charlottesville, one of the trains going to Pennsylvania was delayed for at least three hours because it had hit a deer. Apparently the deer had caused enough damage that the train couldn't move. O_O Bizarre, I know.

happy trick or treating!

Every year at Halloween, UVa has the tradition of opening up our Lawn for Charlottesville city members to come trick or treating at. Families will usually turn out en masse, and it's really cute to see all the little kids dressed up. Most of the student organizations sponsor a lawn room, which entails collecting lots and lots of candy, and the lawnie in question decorates their room for the trick or treaters. To the left is a picture (credit to UVAToday) of the amount of people in attendance.


The lawn rooms I mentioned earlier really do go all out for this event. (There are some pictures in the "Week in Photos" feature on the UVa website). Most of the lawn room shutter doors had cotton strewn over them to imitate cobwebs, posters of ghosts/monsters/etc on the doors themselves, big spiders/bugs/witches dangling from the mantel, and artistically carved pumpkins on the door steps.

The rest of the UVa community also partook in the celebrations by dressing up on Friday night and having a good time with friends. I have to admit though, it was a bit disturbing to see one of my guy friends cross dress. He's a big, towering Asian guy who works out often, and he had somehow crammed himself into a boob tube, mini skirt, and heels. Complete with dollar bills shoved down his chest. Imaginative? Maybe.. But oh so disturbing. UVa ladies tend towards bumblebees, cats, ladybugs, or those in the uniformed profession. UVa guys tended towards more random things. I saw someone dressed up as a gift box, another as an anime character, someone as fireman, and even someone as Jesus.