HOMECOMING, MIDTERMS, AND FALL BREAK!S

September and  the first half of October tend to be the busiest times at IIT in the Fall because of the many activities we have!! Homecoming is always fun because of the different activities UB offers. For the first time ever I went to a College Dance! (although I didn't really stay for very long after it actually started :)) The theme this year was Across the Universe with the Beetles being the stars of the week! Throughout homecoming there were many events for the spirit teams and students in general. There were inflatable toys on Monday, Laser Tag Tuesday, on Wednesday was The Roommate Game, Disco Headphone Dance Party Thursday, Friday was the Homecoming Dance, and Saturday was Carnival!! Friday night was in the HUB expo which actually came out really cool with all of the decorations and of course free food!! :) 

Saturday was not only carnival but the Homecoming games for the Volleyball and Soccer teams! Both the men and women soccer won their games with a 3-2 and 6-1 respectively. On October 8th we had fall break!! Lovely way to only have a 3 day week, especially when midterms are in the middle of that week! The Saturday of Fall Break we had the 1st Annual Fall fest which rivaled any event we have had on campus in the last 4 years. Fall feast had a circus performer emcee, two fantastic comedians, a super-talented violinist, and two bands. The two bands were Young London and Windsor Drive both of which featured pretty cool talent!

The only problem with awesome things happening is that academics start to suffer :(. But not this year, with only 12 credits I was able to participate in the events without having my grades suffer! WOOT WOOT, first time for a lot of things senior year! In one class I even got an A on my midterm exam, and that would be the most important SENIOR SEMINAR! (Yup officially a senior!) One of the better parts is that I also found out that I have a take home final and a final paper INSTEAD OF AN EXAM!!!!!!! The bad part about the midterms this year was two of my hardest ones were on the same day and the day after I hosted a student. I'm sorry to the student for being lame and having to study and making you watch movies. Side note that was the first time I watched Capt America and Ironman 2. 

Another good thing about my midterms being over is this last weekend I got to relax!! Oh and go downtown for the most Delicious cupcakes ever MORE cupcakes! If you get tagged in one of their pictures you get a free cupcake!!!! OMG this is the 4th time I been tagged and lamely enough only the 2nd time I have claimed it :). I walked in 2 minutes before they were closed and got a certificate to come back because they ran out of the Chocolate Chocolate that I was tagged in... I got a carrot cake instead! 3.51 is okay for a cupcake that is that Delicious! :) Following that I went to Jamba Juice, again just before they closed (Im getting good at that!). Then I went to water tower thinking I would get WOW Bao and Godiva, little did I know they close at 6 pm on Sundays. And as it happened they were only letting people in the lobby because of the thunderstorms that were going through Chicago all afternoon. So I have to wait till the coming weekend to get my free chocolate :( very sad day but it got better when my monday class was cancelled! On the day I had to present to the class on the Bottom of the Pyramid (buisness model) the most excitingest bestest topic ever! NOT. Happy Monday!

But as the Day Ends here I must stop to pray for another day and stop typing!! Have a wonderful time in all your doings!!

Love and Blessings

Shirls

Summer School blues

Every summer I have gone home except for this last one. It almost makes life a little better being able to go home every once in a while. Surprisingly I wasn't home sick in my first three years except when I was super stressed. This summer spending the whole time in Chicago made me homesick, and wanting to just call it quits.

 I visited my dad in Virginia in mid July and had a very fun time. We went to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, where if you know me well I lost my phone for the umtieth time. It was refreshing not to have a phone for a few weeks but that means I don't have pictures for this part of summer! While I was there we also went around the battle field from the battle of Appomattox. I enjoyed my time there and got a little less homesick. The best part was probably sharing a twin bed with my sister who seemed to have grown allot bigger than the last time we shared a twin!

Summer class would seem to be easier that regular one since they are in the summer. However to the contrary I found that because you have half the time a class that would usually meet one night a week from 6:25-9:05 meets twice a week! Ode to Joy when I found that a class i needed to take would be offered for the last time this summer!  :) Although the classes I took were fun and  interesting 3 hrs of class twice a week is a little hard to get through. Coming out with straight B's was refreshing !

When school started on the 20th I was ready for it, first time ever! I was excited because all of my classes were going to be interesting and what I wanted to study. So far they have all been interesting and challenging, making it so much more fun! Although I am only taking 12 credits (Gasp!) it is a lot of readings, most of which are very diverting! This semester seems very promising not only in content but in the value of what were learning!

But back to summer one fun time was when my uncle came to town for the ACE Hardware trade show. Something I had never even heard of but that ended up being on of the funnest things! But before the trade show we went to Gino's East and had the pizza with bacon, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and sausage... Delicious! Inside of the McCormick Conference Center there were awesome trees that lit up not just the bonsai but huge palm trees and other decorations that were AWESOME!!

As part of the show they had different animals including this squirrel that puffed smoke the whole time. There was also a skunk that walked around handing out M&M and other goodies. The only live animal we saw was a bald eagle which was also better darn awesome!

Following that little less than 2 hrs after my uncles plane took off for home, my cousin flew into town to spend the week cruising Chi-town. Little did we both know it was not going to be as exciting as we fantasized. First day in town we went and volunteered (somewhat forcefully for Gisela) at the Wrigley Field Road Tour. We got our awesome orange shirts cheered on riders in support of world bicycle relief, and stood on Wrigley field all in the space of 6 hrs..not bad for a first day in Chicago! However the biggest Irony was that we went from Addison/Wrigley field to the Sox-35th red line stop!!!

Most of our days we spent on campus because of my classes and we just didn't feel like going out and getting dressed! Wednesday we ordered the deep dish pizza I had with my uncle except with pineapple! Even better the second time around. On Thursday we finally ventured off campus to go to Flatop grill, amazing stir-fry! Then after a brief siesta we went downtown to the Magnificent mile. We mostly window shopped our way to the Water Tower stopping in the North Bridge mall as well! Teavana is Gisela's new favorite store, we went into both of them! We had Wow Bao which incidentally if we wouldn't have eaten we could have gone into the American Girl store. Instead we hit the Lego store which was waaaaay cooler! Followed by Candiality at Water tower not the one in North Bridge. Huge difference we soon learned after we walked through the candy museum and a few important items for our Christmas lists!!

 After water tower and our free Godiva we headed to Hancock tower were we looked off the sky deck at the awesome Chicago night time skyline! While we were there we also dabbled into the window cleaning business! 

(Blister are the direct cause of to much fun or maybe just walking!)

 After that we caught a cab to Navy Pier, which by the way closes at 10pm...we were there at 10:15. So we went inside to see if anything besides the bar was open and found some pop-Ur-head in picture opportunities! Gisela did not want to be the Merman!  After this we headed home exhausted!!! 

Friday we spent almost all of it at the Museum of Science and Industry which is were we found the cleanest most advanced tractors and combines in all of the world!! We were so excited that we were taking so many pictures a lady asked if we had never seen a tractor! We followed the museum up with the Unlimited Sushi at House of Sushi. Piece of advice never order sushi that ha shrimp or cream cheese in a group of 5 when 2 people don't eat either. All in all the week was very fun and most of all full of different adventures big and small! 

The best part of the summer bar none was going home for Labor Day weekend!!! 4 short days after Gisela left I was back with her for the ride to Ritzville (never really met there! Thank mom for giving us awesome listening skills) to meet my mom and head to the burg. But the first thing when we got home we had to check our camper because someone had broken into it... lucky nothing of huge value (the camper/ sisters baby clothes) was taken. After that my mom, Gaga, and I had our yearly girls weekend at the Cabin. This tradition of spending at least one night up there together started around 5th or 6th grade. It was so much fun to be up there and relax not only in the cabin but out on the lake! For the first time ever I took the kayak out by myself, mainly because its a one seater. Talk about amazing views and peacefulness, the logs in the middle of the lake make for great tethering. I sat on one of the logs for about a half an hour just reading, not something I could do anywhere in Illinois. And of course we through rocks off the bridge...huge Kern family tradition along with my tradition of jumping into a snow-cap fed lake that never gets above 30 degrees... brr.

For the first time in 3 Years I had a fresh Fishers Scone and Root Beer during Rodeo. Yes, I love Fair and Rodeo not just for the show but for the food! Although I skipped a week of class the slow relaxing style of Ellensburg was very much needed. Gaga and I spent Saturday doing the whole parade, fair, and rodeo circuit! I finally met baby Mackenzie who is very cute and bubbly! At the rodeo it was exciting to see our usual rodeo group of Coghills/Bonas and Joyce and Doc! I hadn't seem any of them since I came back to IIT my freshman year and they were a site for sore eyes. After rodeo Gaga and I not only got more scones (bakers dozen), but also chocolate dipped ice cream, 2 elephant ears, and huckleberry ice cream. Talk about high calorie, high fat, HIGH sugar content!! Oh and don't forget the awesome Shirley peanut butter and pickle sandwich!

The rest of the week I was home I spent either cleaning poop out of kennels and cleaning house! When I wasn't doing that I was just enjoying being home. Spending time with everyone back home reminded me why I will probably never end up living in a big city for very long. One because its too busy and because family is way to important to stay away for more than a 6 months! In summary my summer made me homesick but August rocked the socks off of everything!

But as the Day Ends here I must stop to pray for another day and stop typing!! Have a wonderful time in all your doings!!
Love and Blessings
Shirls

The never ending story of looking for and getting an Intership!

Every college student out there that is looking to find a job after graduation can understand the frustration of finding an internship. The problem for me is not finding the ones I want to do right now, since I have already found 3. The problem is the process that follows these amazing discoveries. You might think you apply, they interview, you get the job. Not so much when all of the groups I applied to are out of state (or country). The process is a little more like this:

1)Fill out Application
Every single one has a different application, with varying questions, information you should know off the top of you head. And lets not forget the next two things!

2)Post Resume and Cover Letter
Every resume and cover letter have to be altered to include the organization or company name. It also needs why you want to be a part of the company, all for different reason.

(2.5) If necessary submit not so good transcript)
obviously not my favorite part!

3) Submit Essays
These can be from a 250-2000 word essays on the different things they feel relate to the company and how you will benefit them!

4)Online Interview
Take a interview using online servers that check to see if you are a reliable, hard working person. Some companies do not do this but some do.

5)Phone Interview
Since all of the jobs are over 400 miles away, I get to do a phone interview. Talk about nerve wracking! Everyone thinks that in-person interviews are way harder, I would like to contradict this. You cannot see the person, you do pick up on their non-verbal signs. You second guess every answer, but enjoy every agonizing minute as you realize you are one step closer!

6) The hardest and worst part of this WAIT 2-4 WEEKS to hear back...aaaahhh
I am currently on week one for all 3 of them, and anyone that knows me well knows I am not a very patient person when something I want is on the line. All of these opportunities will come with costs but they will not be ones I cannot cope with paying. Except for maybe the plane tickets there which vary from 400 to close to 2,500. Yup its gonna be a fun 3 more weeks.

7) Accept with an excited noise and travel the lands to go work!
Although this will require the most work, everything will hopefully pay off!!

But as the Day Ends here I must stop to pray for another day and stop typing!! Have a wonderful time in all your doings!!
Love and Blessings
Shirley

IIT as a small town in a big city!

Being from the less dense area of Washington there are certain things that you know are just like home. In the dorms, like home people leave their doors unlocked. We trust the other people in the building for the most part! We also care about each other and will help a friend out. But one thing that changes that is some of the competitions that are put on by the student organizations. Best friends will be found chasing, tackling, and wrestling each other just to get the item they need. This game is usually called Infection. Where you have infected people trying to infect everyone else that is playing!

Another really cool thing that IIT like to do a lot is service learning! This year I am lucky enough to have been selected to be a part of the IIT alternative spring break team! We will be going to Valdosta, GA!!! I am super excited for this since it will be my first time in the South East!


One of the fundraisers we did that was super fun/funny was the PIE in the Face! We asked variouse students, professors, and faculty to come and have people pay to pie them in the face. Among the group pied were Gerry Doyle, Al Nunez, and Tanya Cabrera, all of which work closely if not in the Undergrad Admissions office!!


But as the Day Ends here I must stop to pray for another day and stop typing!! Have a wonderful time in all your doings!!
Love and Blessings
Shirls