Wicked Suite!

Ever heard of the North Hedges Suites? Yeah, me neither until last week. As an Orientation Leader, I had

Orientation Leader Selfie

to attend the first session and stay in a residence hall with the students in my group. Because there is some construction and remodeling going on, they had to put my group in the suites instead of in the residence halls where freshman would typically be staying, like North and South Hedges. No complaints here, though, those places are nice!

Typically for sophomores or older (from what I’m told), the suites are equipped with either two rooms that connect through a bathroom, or four rooms that share a bathroom and a big group room. In the rooms there was a fridge, a microwave, a TV, a dresser and a closet. That’s a lot of stuff! Here’s some pictures to give you a better idea, with some of my awesome orientation students to model:

Heading into the common room

Common Room

Common Room to Bedroom

One of the Rooms

My temporary room

My room again

I’ll be leading another session for orientation next week, giving me some more experience with the other residence halls, which I can post about then. Are you heading to orientation? I’m a leader for University Studies students, so look for me if that’s your major! Here’s the residence hall you’ll most likely be living in for your orientation:

After orientation I flew out to good old NH to surprise my sister for graduation. Man, I forgot how great it was to see so much green out there in New England. I head home this afternoon, back to a busy week of homework and just work. I can’t wait for the next orientation session, hopefully my group is as awesome as the last one. What are you wondering about for orientation?

Flying into NH

Me and My Sister!

Family Graduation Photo

Teeing Off

This week, I tried something new and hit a golf course with some friends. Only one of them actually knew how to golf, so the experience proved interesting. If I’m being honest, I already knew it wasn’t my thing, so I sat on the sidelines and watched them on the driving range (isn’t that what it’s called?).

Anyways, if you’re interested in golfing, we went to Bridger Creek Golf Course. Here’s some pictures:

Fitness Fun

Did you know you can get CREDIT for taking a fitness class at the gym??  Did you know that there were fitness classes at the gym at all? Did you know there was a gym?

Yup, all are available to you as a student. For full time students, your gym membership is already paid for and you can just go on in (using the hand scanner or your cat card, of course). For a small fee, you can have access to all the fitness classes that semester too. And for another small fee, you can have a locker too (get em’ early, they fill up fast!). So, is it worth it?

The gym itself is completely worth it, especially since you’ve already paid for it, so you might as well go. It’s pretty big, complete with a pool, climbing wall, and racquetball courts as well as your run of the mill gym equipment/workout areas.

The classes depend on how well they work with your schedule and your personal workout preferences. I like the classes, because it’s easier for me to workout when I have someone to tell me what to do. Recently, I’ve done the spinning class and love it!! The instructor is so great and I always feel awesome after it’s over, although really sweaty. I’ve also been doing yoga, which is less exciting for me since my flexibility pretty much doesn’t exist. If you’re a yoga person, it’ll do though. I haven’t had much time to try the other classes out, but I hear zumba is fun and I would love to try pilates. What would you want to do?

 

Food Shopping

This has been my first time having my own place, which also meant my first time actually buying my own groceries. And I don’t mean groceries as in a few packs of ramen or some granola bars, but full-fledged fruits and veggies, bread and pasta, baking supplies, and so on. So, I decided to do this post on where you can get some good old groceries.

This may be where you have tuned out, because you may be one of the many incoming freshman who will be living in the residence halls and saying to yourself “I won’t need to grocery shop at all!”. However, this post still applies to you! Although the dining halls supply sufficient meals, as well as some late night bites, and there are a few small food locales in the dorms and on campus, here are some problems I foresee:

1. The dining halls are not open 24/7. What if you wake up with a sudden craving at 2am?
2. Contrary to popular belief, you can not just freely take food from college dining halls. It is to be eaten then and there.
3. What if you want something not offered? For example, I have an extreme love for parmesan goldfish, not found in the dining halls.
4. What kind of meal plan do you have? If it is a five day, what will you do on the weekends?

That’s all I can really think of for reasons right now. The point being, you do not NEED to buy groceries or food if you have access to the dining halls seven days a week, but it sure is nice to be able to. So I’ll give you some options.

• Town and Country: Perhaps the most convenient option, as it is almost right on campus next to north, south and roskie (Residence halls). They have your run of the mill food options, plus a little area to study or eat upstairs.
• West College street behind Langford (residence hall) has a number of places you can do a small amount of shopping. The Loaf and Jug gas station and Joe’s parkway are two notable places (Joe’s offers big sodas for a cheap price).
• Safeway: A little farther, but still fairly close off of Main Street, you can get a membership card for free to this big grocery store and save a whole lot of cash. They also have a pharmacy if you prefer not to use the one on campus in the student health center.
• Costco: also far, and a place I have yet to go. I heard that it’s a lot of bulk items for cheap prices? Good for stacking up on ramen, I suppose.
• The Co-Op: More local, there’s two off of main street, and this is my favorite place to shop by far. I happen to be vegan, and they happen to be very vegan friendly, so I may be biased. They have a hot food and fresh salad bar and a sandwich station though, and you can eat upstairs where you can also buy smoothies, coffees, or juice. I happen to be writing this from the upstairs of the Co-op currently.
• Target: this is pretty self explanatory, as I think there’s a Target just about everywhere.

Well, that’s all the shopping advice I can offer for now. If you are planning on having your own place, I suggest being stingy on that first shopping trip and going a few times throughout the week to find out what it is you really need. Otherwise, you go crazy and buy a little bit of everything, and then end up with half gone bad and wondering why you bought the other half of stuff. Oh well, that’s life I suppose. Happy food hunting!

Hiking Sypes Canyon

It was a beautiful day last Saturday, perfect for a beautiful hike! And one I had never been on before: the Sypes Canyon Trail. About a two hour round trip hike, with a beautiful view. It even connects to the M, if you want to do the extra 22 miles to get there. Apparently, you can also bike it, as we noted by the many mountain bikers who whizzed by. I’ve always wished I could do that. Anyways, I’ll let my pictures tell you about the hike:

My Friends

View Halfway Up

Almost There

The View from the Top:

Being a Big Kid

I’m all moved into my summer condo, and loving feeling like a “big kid” on my own. It was actually fun carting all my things from my four room mate room and house shared with 40 other girls to a three bedroom condo and a room to myself! I’m learning through this process what I want in any future apartments. For example, a dishwasher, washer and dryer are non-negotiable, it’s been a relief that this condo has them. Things I would like: a walk in closet, and lots of kitchen space. Have you thought about where you’re going to live, and what you want your place to look like?

old room

 

New Room

Walk in Closet!

Anyways, I should also mention that being big kid comes with some big costs. To break it down for you, here’s what I’ve been spending so far:

• $360 per month for the condo
• $100 this week for groceries- hopefully that cost will go down now that I’m stocked up
• $50 gas this week
• $117 per month for phone
• $239 per month for car
• $300 this week to fix my car

I’m sure there is other costs that I haven’t even mentioned. Like I said, it racks up, and that’s all my own money (no credit or anything), so that broke-college kid thing is very real, and very much applies to me. Oh well, money isn’t the most important thing life… right?

Downstairs

Downstairs

Finally finals are done

I have survived through finals week yet again. Here’s what it looked like for me:

• Electronic Library Research Skills (LSCI 121) four page paper due Sunday
• Early Childhood through Adolescent Development (EDEC 160) Final Group Exam Monday 12:00. You won’t believe my luck, but this one actually got canceled! Automatic A, I am sure fine with that!
• Statistics (Stat 216) Final Exam Tuesday at 6:00pm
• Education Psychology and Child Development (EDU 222) Final Exam Friday at Noon. Took almost three minutes- the result of some top notch studying!
• Social Psychology (PSYX 360) Final Exam Friday at 2:00.

All of the finals were multiple choice. With the exception of Statistics, which obviously had some short answer and problem solving. It was actually a very stress free week for me, which is surprising as most people’s final week is pretty painful. What do you think your experience will be like?

 

Flashcards for my Social Psychology exam

At least we know how Mother Nature feels about finals!

Boosting my brainpower! Banana, Kale, and Soy Milk smoothie with some vegan brown sugar pancakes

At last- Finals week ends and the sun begins to shine again!

Now, I need to put my focus on getting into the swing of summer!

April Showers bring May… Snow. Just snow.

That’s Montana for you, folks. And it just keeps coming down.

Downtown Bozeman

This weekend had some pretty awesome weather, so I chose to forego blogging until I had taken full advantage and could post pictures of all the ways I chose to spend my time in the outdoors. Admittedly, it was a little windy which put a damper on some outside time, but I still enjoyed it!

• Bobcat fest was this Friday, and the weather couldn’t have been better! Clear skies and no wind, main street was closed down and packed with people enjoying the music and the friendly Bozeman atmosphere. Will you be here this summer? Check out Music on Main or the Sweet Pea Festival

Pizza Eating Competition

• The Bozeman Pond is always a nice picnic area

Notice the Beaver swimming by and the ducks in the background

• Always a great time for a bike ride or a walk! Check out my favorite trail, the galligator.

My friends walking the Galligator

• Yard Saling, anyone?

• Lunch on Main Street. We ate at Ted’s, which was perfect since I was craving french fries and they had a veggie burger, so I could actually eat. (I’m a vegetarian)

We had to move inside due to the wind

• Take part in a march? This group just happened to go by us at the same time we were leaving downtown.

• Do a little shopping on Main Street

 

 

 

One my my favorite shops

Papers. So many papers.

It is inevitable: you are going to have to write papers during your time at college. More inevitable, you are going to have  to write a wide variety of papers. Creative writing, personal essays, discussion papers, responses, and research papers. Some teachers will assume you have no idea how to write a paper, and lay all of the requirements and “how-to’s” out to you. Others will assume that you know exactly how to do what they’re asking, and give you no further information except for the topic and the format they want it in. What can you do? Well, a number of things.

1. Read the instructions for the paper carefully. Don’t let yourself lose points over something simple.
2. CITE!!! If you use any sources, cite them. It is a serious issue if you get caught plagiarizing, even accidentally.
3. Know your MLA and APA formats. Check out this site.
4. Go to the Writing Center. They can be a huge help.
5. Talk to your professor and classmates.
6. PROOFREAD! Have others proofread! Make sure your point is clear.
7. Get a head start. Don’t put it off until the night before.
8. Do your research, so you know what you’re talking about.

I’m posting this because as finals are right around the corner, more and more students are getting stressed as those papers they put off begin to pile up, and they don’t even know where to start. If writing is your weakness, then ask for help- it’s a very useful skill in life to be able to write well.

 

The snow just can’t seem to stay away.