My Brother visits Stonehill :)

This past week was really great, but also really stressful! Tuesday night we picked our housing for next year, and Thursday we had to register for our classes for next year. Its so weird thinking this year is already almost over and we're preparing for our sophomore year. Picking housing was pretty stressful, but I was really happy with the result. My roommate for next year is my friend Tara. We knew we wanted to live in Pilgrim Heights, which is suite style living for sophomores. We wanted to get a suite where some of our friends could get in too, and it all worked out! We got a room in Sheehan. And 4 of our friends also got into our suite, so we were pretty excited. After housing picks were all done, the 6 of us went over to Sheehan to check out our future home. There were some girls in there who currently live there, and they were really nice and let us look around. Everything looks pretty great. We love the location and the suite is very spacious and should be an awesome place to live next year! Once the stress of picking housing was over, there was a viewing of Avatar on the quad. That was a really nice way to end the night. We had no classes on Wednesday for Academic Development Day, so we were able to stay up late without having to worry about waking up for classes in the morning.

Then, on Thursday, freshmen had their turn to register for classes. I had spent a lot of my day Wednesday figuring out what classes I was going to be taking for the next three years, so I was really worried I wasn't going to get the classes I wanted and screw up my 4 year plan. But, it all ended up working out and I got all of my classes. That was a major relief!

After my stresses of the week were over, I was so excited for the weekend and for my brother Michael to visit. He's graduating from Michigan State this year, so this was his last chance to visit for a weekend before he goes off to work in New York in a couple weeks. He has never been to Stonehill, so him visiting was really exciting. He got here on Friday night. We spent the night introducing him to all of my friends and walking around showing him the campus.

Then on Saturday, we went into Boston with some of my friends. My brother wanted to see the Boston College campus, so we drove in there and walked around campus. There was a spring football game going on when we got there, so we watched some of that and then just looked around. When we got to the city, we wandered around the Boston Commons and the Public Garden. Then we met up with more of my friends for the Red Sox game. It was pretty cold, but the game was still really fun.

I was really glad my brother came to visit and got to see what my life is like here. He really loved it and hopefully will get the chance to come back. Finals are coming up in only two weeks, so its going to be continuing to get really busy from now on!!

Spring Week!

This past week was Spring Week at Stonehill. Spring is a week full of activities around campus, with a concert and a mixer being the main events on the weekends. We have been looking forward to this week for a very long time, so I couldn't believe when it finally arrived. The first big thing of the week was a comedy show in the gymnasium on Tuesday night. Loni Love came. She's been on VH1 and Chelsea Lately on E!, so it was pretty exciting. Personally, I have seen her on Chelsea Lately so I was really happy when I found out she was our Spring Week comedian. I was definitely not disappointed. I think that was the hardest I have laughed in a really long time. She has a really great show prepared. She also put in effort to involve all of the students in her show which was really cool. A few students got a chance to go up on stage with her. She gave them a pretty hard time, but it was all in good fun and I think everyone enjoyed it. She even stayed for awhile after and took pictures with students, so that was really great.

The highlight of the week was definitely the weekend. On Friday, there was a concert in the Sports Complex. The band State Radio came to play. We also had the DJ, Girl Talk. I'd never heard of State Radio before, but I had a few friends that really liked them and they ended up doing a great job and put on a really good show. I was personally really excited for Girl Talk. A couple of my friends from home are huge fans and I've always liked his stuff. His performance was crazy. A lot of students had previously won the chance to go on stage with him, so that was obviously really exciting for him. Everyone watching was dancing and having a good time. It was really great! Then on Saturday during the day there was a carnival. That was really fun. There were a lot of really fun things to do. Some of my friends and I got Henna tattoos. My friends Morgan and Justin did this boxing thing that was there. That was pretty hilarious watching them try and beat each other up (of course, all in good fun, no one gets hurt!). Then at night, there was a mixer in the Sports Complex. That was really fun! We haven't had a dance in there since the first weekend of the semester, so it was really great to have another.
Spring Week was really great, but I am also extremely excited for this weekend to come because my brother Michael is visiting! He's never been to Stonehill, so I can't wait for him to come and to show him around.

Spring in Easton :)

Winter is finally over, and spring has definitely arrive at Stonehill! Of course, there is still the occasional rainy day, but it is definitely a lot warmer here on campus. Campus is covered in tulips and looks beautiful with the sun shining every day. The past couple weeks have been really fun! Last week was my friend Kelly's birthday! Her actual birthday was during the week when we were all pretty busy with work, so we waited until the weekend to celebrate. On Thursday, we went to a Stonehill lacrosse game. Lacrosse isn't really big on the west coast so I've never been to a game before. It was really fun, though, and the Skyhawks won!



Then on Friday, a bunch of our friends all went out to dinner at Bertucci's for Kel's birthday. Bertucci's is a great place to go because it is walking distance from campus and they take our HillCard, so we don't have to pay with cash. Kelly's best friend from home, Lindsay, came for the weekend to celebrate. She's really great, and Kelly definitely loves having her around, so it was really good of her to visit. She goes to BU, so it isn't too hard for her to get here. The next day, a few of us decided to go into Boston for the day. Lindsay came with us too, and then went back to school from there, so that really worked out. It is pretty easy to get into the city. We just take the Stonehill shuttle to the Quincy Adams T station
and ride the T into the city. We spent the day walking down Newbury Street and Quincy Market. It was a really fun day! The weather was really nice, so I loved just walking around outside. We went into a lot of fun random stores and just had a really great time.

Spring Break!

For spring break, Stonehill had a little over a week off. That was great because that meant I got to go home to California! Though it is always a little sad to leave the Hill, coming home is always great. Being so far away from home makes me really miss my family, so I loved getting to go home to see them. First semester I didn't go home at all, so it was nice to be able to go back home so soon. I had a really great break. I spent most of my time with my family. All of siblings in college had the same spring breaks, so we were all home at the same time. That was really lucky! It seems as we all get older, the time we have all together as a family gets rarer, so I really value when we are all home at the same time.

Besides spending time with my family, I went to visit my best friend Jenn at her college. She goes to University of California at Santa Barbara. Her school is right on the beach, so that was really nice. Her classes were still in session, so she was obviously a little busy, but I still really loved visiting her there. I spent 3 days there. We pretty much just spent the whole time chatting and catching up and hanging out on the beach. There are also some really good shopping outlets right by her school, so we definitely took advantage of those and got a lot of shopping done. It was a really great trip!

Before I knew it though, spring break was over and I'm back at the Hill. This week should be fun! It is my friend Kelly's birthday this week, so the festivities for that should be really fun! I cannot believe its almost April! Spring semester is flying by!!

End of Winter :)

One big thing I had to get used to when moving to Massachusetts was obviously the weather. It has definitely been a big change, but it hasn't been as bad as I expected. I don't love all the rain, though. Everyone warned me about the snow, but no one told me about all of this rain. It seems to rain all the time. Walking to class takes a lot of motivation when the weather is like that, but I just put on my rain boots and North Face and make the walk to Duffy. I have definitely gotten used to it as the year has gone by. We have had a couple more snow storms this semester too. I actually really enjoy those. Our last big storm was really fun. The first night it started to snow, I went out with a couple of friends and played around in it. We had a snow ball fight, made snow angels, and failed miserably at making a snowman. Earlier in the semester I made one, but the snow was pretty hard. This time it was soft and powdery so we thought it would go better, but it was somewhat of a fail. It was still really fun trying though! It was a really fun night. Then a couple nights later, we took advantage of the snow sticking to the ground and went sledding down Donahue hill. That was extremely fun. I haven't gone sledding since I was really little, so I really enjoyed that. Though I wiped out a few times and had a few bruises the next day, it was definitely worth it!

Now that spring is coming, it will be about time to start putting away the North Face jackets and whipping out shorts and flip flops. I am definitely excited about that. We have had a few random really nice days, and the mood is always really great around campus on those days. Everyone sits out on the grass to do homework and plays football or frisbee on the quad. I have some busy weeks ahead with all my classes. This semester is going by so fast!