Ok, so I admit it has been quite a while since I've updated you all on my life. But do you know why that is? Because college is freakin AWESOME and I've fogotten all about you guys! ....JUST KIDDING. While college is in fact awesome, I do miss you all very very much and I think about all of you every day. Which brings me to my next point: I will be home for Thanksgiving in less than three weeks, so I hope to see at least most of you then (please)! I was home for fall break about three weeks ago and I had a great time being home for just a few days. It was extremely strange, however, knowing that I don't officially live there anymore and it took me a day to get used to the changes around the house (some of you know how my mom is, she loves to change up the furniture every once in a while, which caught me off guard). And when I come home for Thanksgiving I'll have even more suprises (or at least one): my Aunt Vicki has so kindly given my family one of her cats, Abigail, and I am so excited to meet her! It will be weird showing up at Thanksgiving knowing that the cat will probably be afraid of me at first because I'm a stranger to her, but I am just beyond excited that we finally own another cat!

So, back to talking about KU! I met with my adviser the other day to discuss the classes that I should take for next semester, and she estimated that I have a 3.8 GPA and I have already completed my Math and English requirements. So now all I have to do is apply to the Honors College and the classes I've decided to take for next semester are German,  Psychology (research methods class), Biology, and a couple of other classes that I need for my general education requirement. Oh! That also reminds me to tell you all that I am going to declare my major in Psychology! I can't actually apply for the major until next fall, but I've decided that it is exactly what I want to do.

My roommates are still kind of crazy; sometimes in a bad way, sometimes in a good way. But they've really grown on me, especially Marika because we have so much in common. She's a really great friend and I couldn't have asked for a better roommate. Sasha, on the other hand, is quite a mess sometimes. Half the time she comes to our dorm drunk, a quarter of the time she's high, and the rest of the time she's sober. She is also a very loud person and is not afraid to tell you if she has a problem with you, which gets her into trouble with Marika sometimes because they are complete opposites personality-wise and they are both outspoken people. Sure, there have been times when I've deeply desired to yell at Sasha, but that would only make things worse. I haven't gotten on her bad side yet (fortunately) so I just kind of stay out of her way. Otherwise, she's a very nice girl and I enjoy talking to her. Jordan and I still don't really talk to each other much, but I think that's because we're both very timid people. Still, she is a very nice girl.

Speaking of dormmates, apparently we have a very troublesome ghost haunting our residence hall, but it has been especially picking on Jordan. Basically this kid hanged himself a few years ago in the basement of our hall (gruesome, I know) and everyone believes that he is the ghost that has been  wreaking havoc on everyone. But this past month he has been really scaring me, Marika, Sasha and Jordan. I won't go into much detail, but basically he has been moving things around and stealing things from Jordan. NOW BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING, some of these things are actually unexplainable by any logical sense. Sure, I'm convinced that some of these instances are the result of someone playing a prank on us, but there have been other things happening in Jordan and Sasha's room that are just plain unexplainable. It also probably doesn't help that before all of this weird stuff happened I went to go see Paranormal Activity 2....but anyway, I am pretty convinced that there is indeed some kind of paranormal happening in our dorm. In fact, just the other night about 15 people from our hall crowded themselves into our living room/kitchen so we could all use the Ouiji board. It moved. But it didn't specifically spell out anything, which was a slight disappointment. Anyway, you can come up with your own theories, but we DO have a ghost!

I know that you all are just dying to know what the weather has been like up here, and let me tell you: it's cold. And windy. Which doesn't really help. I understand that these past couple of days in Texas have been cold and rainy and unpleasant, while up here it's been sunny but cold in the mornings and at night, and then it warms up a bit during the day (to only about 60 degrees or so). The cold weather feels fine; it's the WIND that really drives me insane sometimes. Marika tells me that once it really gets cold and it starts to snow, the wind will REALLY pick up then....I can't wait....well actually I'm excited for the snow, but not for the bitter wind.

That's all I can think of for now. OH but for those of you who don't know: I did upload pictures of the campus onto Facebook a while back, and I even have some pictures of the trees changing colors! (Kansas does in fact have four distinct seasons, whereas Texas has only two.) I love all you guys, and again, I hope I can see some of you over Thanksgiving! I'll update again soon!

Excited!

Ok, sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been a bit busy. I have only had one test so far and it was in Psychology and I got a 90, which I'm pretty proud of. In case you don't remember, there are a thousand people in that class and a third of them failed this test while only 17% got A's and 20% got B's and so on. Coming from Plano West really has helped prepare me for college and I am really very grateful for that. Tomorrow is my first Calculus test which I will not be studying for at all because once again, I remember everything from last year and it's too dang easy!

So you might be wondering why the title of this blog is "Excited!" Well, my mom, dad, and Hayden will be coming here this weekend for Family Day! I miss them so much and I can't wait to see them, even if it is only for a day. We will be going to the Saturday night football game and probably walk around Downtown Lawrence and whatever else we feel like doing.

On another note, Halloween is coming up! (For me, the month of October is Halloween). Marika (my roommate) and I put up orange and purple lights around the living room in our dorm as well as a "Trick or Treat" banner. I will post pictures later (yes, I promise!!!!) but it looks so festive and pretty! Unfortunately, last night as I was trying to fall asleep, Jordan (one of my suitemates) came in with a friend and started talking about how much she hated the decorations. She thought me and Marika were asleep, so she went on to rant to her friend about how she "cried" after she saw our decorations because "it's too early to be putting up Halloween decorations" and she has to "adjust". Pft. The drama never ends. Sasha, my other suitemate, however, LOVES the decorations! So they're staying. And that's that.

Interesting people I've met: I met this girl in my Career Exploration class named Yuki and she is from China. She is really nice and invited me to a Chinese Moon Festival coming up on Thursday that I will be definitely going to. Everyone in my English class is really nice, and I've made quite a few acquaintances in that class. My theatre class is where I've met most of the people that have truly made an impression on me so far this year. They are people that don't judge and that love to talk to me, and I love to talk to them!

Well, that's pretty much what's been happening in my life since the last post. College is still awesome, and by awesome I mean high school looks like a prison compared to this. I PROMISE I will post pictures on Facebook either today or tomorrow. PROMISE.

A whole new world of interests.

Well, today was my 8th day of classes, and I am very happy to say that I love every single one of my classes (except for maybe calculus...but I'll get to that later). For those of you who are curious of my schedule, it is as follows: Mondays and Wednesdays require me to rise and shine at 7 in the morning for a 7:35 AM Calculus class. I know, you should be jealous! Usually I drag myself there and then drag myself back to my cozy bed at 9 and take a nap before my English class at 11. My next class after English on Mondays and Wednesdays is theatre, which is from 3 to 5. Tuesdays and Thursdays are much easier on me physically; I have Career Exploration at 9:30 AM and then Psychology at 1. Finally, I am VERY luck to have only one class on Friday, which is my English class!

I hated every single one of my English classes in high school, but so far college English is so much more fun (but still a lot of reading and work). So far, I have read Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" and right now I am working on reading "Pride and Prejudice". As a side note, I will definitely get around to reading "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" sometime in the near future. Anyway, I have to read five other books besides those this semester, one per week (eeek!!). The good news is, I am looking forward to reading all of these books, and I have already quite enjoyed the first two mentioned above.

Theatre is such a fun class. I did take it for three years in high school, and every time I walk into that class I remember why I love it so much: the people! I've already become well-acquainted with most of the people, and I know I'm going to have a lot of fun! My Career Exploration class has already proven to be very helpful for me, and I just know that I will be able to choose a major by the end of the semester with the help of this class.

My favorite class is psychology, for a number of reasons. One, I have always been interested in how different people are affected by different events, circumstances, genetics, and their brains. Second, I have never been much of a science person, but the physiological aspect of psychology is very interesting to me. I love learning about how the different parts of the brain have developed over time from evolution and how each of those parts specifically affects our actions and thoughts. Third, I love learning about the different experiments that psychologists have performed throughout history, as well as learning about the different pyschological theories that have developed over time. Who knows, maybe a future major? At this point though, I think it's still a bit too early to tell.

I saved my review of Calculus for last. Basically, I already have credit for this class from my AP exam scores in high school, but in June when I was signing up for classes, I thought that maybe I should just retake it because I was afraid college math would be much more difficult than high school math. I was wrong. I am falling asleep in that class (and not because it's at 7:30 in the morning). So now, I need to talk to my advisor to see if I should go up to Calculus II even though I'll be almost two weeks behind. This is the number one dilemma in my life right now, which is actually considerably a pretty good deal!

All in all, I love the college life so far. I'm still working on making friends (which naturally comes hard for me), but I've joined quite a few clubs and I love everyone in all of my classes so it shouldn't be a problem. I should really go to sleep now since I've been up since 7 this morning, so good night all! Until next time! (Pics still to come...eventually :))

Rainy morning

I have just woken up about 30 minutes ago and it is 70 degrees and raining, a stark contrast to the Dallas-area weather, which according to weather.com is 99 degrees, hot and humid. (Sorry to everyone back home, that must really suck). But since it is raining here, my three roommates and I are lounging around doing nothing. That's one thing I will have to adjust to; finding things to do when I'm not too busy studying or doing anything else for that matter.

On Sunday afternoon soon after my parents left, I got invited to a frat party by three (cute) guys. I considered going with my boyfriend, just to see what it was like. But by that night, I had completely forgotten about it.
Sunday night was called "Union Fest", which was a luau-themed party in the student union. It was a lot of fun; there were prizes and coupons that were being given away, and the entire six-floor union was packed with students. But here's the punch-line: one thing I found out about the KU community is that they walk everywhere on campus. I decided to wear my cowboy boots* to this event, unfortunately I had no idea that I would have to walk two miles to get to the union. As if that wasn't enough, I had to walk back to my dorm as well, which resulted in blisters covering my ankles because of the way my boots rubbed against my skin. That was when I learned that I could have taken the KU bus system back. So I learned two things from all of this: always wear proper walking shoes when you know that you are going to be walking for a long time. Second, take advantage of the bus system every once in a while!

Yesterday, I met my roommate (the one that's sleeping in the same room as me) and she is really cool! We are both artistic and she really loves to talk, which I'm used to with my boyfriend. Also, she doesn't snore! Anyway, last night was Traditions Night. We all walked two miles (again) to the football stadium. Luckily, I wore proper shoes this time. At the stadium, we learned about the history behind our chant, our mascot, our "waving the wheat" cheer, and our special clap during the fight song. It was so much fun, and the stadium was beautiful! Afterwards, we walked right outside of the stadium to see a concert by some band whose name has slipped from my mind. Alex and I stayed for a couple of songs and then decided to go back to my dorm via bus and hang out in the common room. It has been such a great couple of days, and unfortunately I still have no pictures. :(

Until next time!

*There was one good thing that came from my cowboy boots that day - a man who was passing out door prize tickets to random people approached me and said, "Since you're wearing cowboy boots, I'm going to give you this door prize ticket!" I went to claim my door prize and got a $10 gift card to get my next hair cut.

All moved in

Well, here I am in Lawrence, Kansas at 11:22 pm and I have never been so tired in my life! A lot has happened on this first day, but I am about to fall asleep just typing this so I will post more tomorrow! Hopefully some pictures too :)

Expectations: T-minus 4 Days

My wonderful Aunt Laurie suggested that I should start a blog describing my college experiences so that everyone in the family can "live vicariously" through me, so here it is! I wanted to start out by describing what I plan on expecting for the next four years, but that would take a lot of time. Instead, I will just jot down a few of the things that I've been thinking about the most. Speaking of which, there has not been one minute that has passed in my life for the past two months that has not been interrupted by thoughts of college. I have even dreamt about college every single night for the past month or so, and I've gotta say that the dreams are usually nightmares and all of the students are people that went to my high school (I know, scary right?). You might infer that these dreams have just made me more anxious about college, but in fact, I am actually 95 percent freaking out (in a good way) and 5 percent freaking out (in a nervous way).

Oh, and for those of you who don't know, my dorm room is actually a suite that I will be sharing with three other girls. This suite contains two bedrooms, a living room, a walk-in closet, a wet bar, and a bathroom. Here's the floor plan:

Anyway, the thoughts that insist on invading my mind constantly include:

• Decorating my room. How many posters will I be able to fit on my wall? Will my roommate be creeped out by my obsession with kitten and Tim Burton paraphernalia?
• Will my suitemates be nice? Will I be able to get along with them immediately?
• Speaking of which, will my roommate snore? I'm crossing my fingers that the answer is no.
• Will making new friends come naturally to me, even though I've been shy all my life?
• How difficult will my classes be? (I'm really dreading this one...)
• How long will I be homesick, and to what extent will homesickness affect me (or not affect me)?
• And of course, saying goodbye to my parents. I've lived with them my whole life, and now all of a sudden I will be forced to go without seeing them in person for months at a time. Thank God for Skype!
• And just what am I supposed to do after my parents leave? I suppose the answer would be to go out and meet people.

What I do know is that most of these worries will be completely put to rest after the first day. I also know that I will have the time of my life, and I will create memories that will last me a life time. I know I will be going through a lot of changes, and I will keep you all updated as much as I can with the latest. Hopefully I will be able to upload some pictures of my dorm room and the campus next week!

I love you all and I will miss you!