I think that this semester in English class was very interesting because we had to keep a blog and write in it every week and before this class I have never read a blog before in my life. It was kind of fun to keep a blog and see what people thought of the stories I wrote, but I probably won’t continue to write on my blog after this because I just do not have the time to keep up with it and I probably would not know what to write about on it. I have learned that it is kind of fun to keep a blog and tell people that I have a blog, haha. I think that if a person really wanted to keep a blog they should but I think that they should keep up with it at least weekly.
I really am not a big fan of writing because I can never get things from my head to paper it just comes out wrong and I am dissatisfied with the paper, but writing a blog it really did not matter too much. I did not worry about it a lot because I knew that it was not for a grade, it was just for “fun”. I could write whatever I want to write about just as long as it went along with the general topic. In which they were not very hard because they were very general topics and very easy to write about. My favorite topic, besides the free writes, would probably have to be if I received the amount of money for four years of college at Illinois State University but I could not spend it on school what would I do with it. I really liked this one because it made me excited because I said I wanted to travel and I cannot wait until I do go travel around the world someday. I love to have new adventures and traveling would definitely give me more adventures. Blogging helps you write things down and keep them in mind so you can always look back at them.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Town of Bloomington-Normal
When I think of Bloomington-Normal I think of Illinois State University. So if I had to set up a tour for someone who wasn’t from around here it would go a little something like this:
The best time of year to visit Bloomington-Normal is either in the fall or spring because the quad of ISU looks absolutely gorgeous. I know that when I walk around the quad it makes me feel at home, in a way. You should just take a god amount of time walking around the quad and looking at the many different trees in the quad. There is no tree in there that is the same type as another one. After you walk around the quad for a while another place that makes me feel at home is the Newman Center, right next to Avanti’s. Right now it is under construction because we are getting a new chapel, but even though it is under construction it is a home away from home. You can enter through the back and see the gorgeous paintings of different saints that are in progress. While you are in there I suggest that you talk to Fr. Dittmer and Fr. Victor, they are the two priests that we have at the center and they are probably two of the most interesting people that I know. They have so many stories between the two of them you can never get bored, and they love to talk. After you spend a good amount of time there, my guess is that you are probably hungry. You should go next door to Avanti’s, but u have to get there when it is not that crowded otherwise it takes forever to get a table. Once you get seated you start off with the most amazing bread ever! But while you are munching on you bread don’t fill up just on that, but order the pizza bread for dinner, it is my favorite dish from there. After you are done with dinner you probably just want to chill for a little bit, I would suggest that you go for coffee at Fusion Brew, the local coffee shop off of Hovey. It is a great place to just sit down and relax form an eventful day, and they have delicious coffee. Once you’re done with your cup of coffee your day is done! It flew by so fast you barely remember what you did. But I hope that you enjoyed Bloomington-Normal just as much as I do.
The best time of year to visit Bloomington-Normal is either in the fall or spring because the quad of ISU looks absolutely gorgeous. I know that when I walk around the quad it makes me feel at home, in a way. You should just take a god amount of time walking around the quad and looking at the many different trees in the quad. There is no tree in there that is the same type as another one. After you walk around the quad for a while another place that makes me feel at home is the Newman Center, right next to Avanti’s. Right now it is under construction because we are getting a new chapel, but even though it is under construction it is a home away from home. You can enter through the back and see the gorgeous paintings of different saints that are in progress. While you are in there I suggest that you talk to Fr. Dittmer and Fr. Victor, they are the two priests that we have at the center and they are probably two of the most interesting people that I know. They have so many stories between the two of them you can never get bored, and they love to talk. After you spend a good amount of time there, my guess is that you are probably hungry. You should go next door to Avanti’s, but u have to get there when it is not that crowded otherwise it takes forever to get a table. Once you get seated you start off with the most amazing bread ever! But while you are munching on you bread don’t fill up just on that, but order the pizza bread for dinner, it is my favorite dish from there. After you are done with dinner you probably just want to chill for a little bit, I would suggest that you go for coffee at Fusion Brew, the local coffee shop off of Hovey. It is a great place to just sit down and relax form an eventful day, and they have delicious coffee. Once you’re done with your cup of coffee your day is done! It flew by so fast you barely remember what you did. But I hope that you enjoyed Bloomington-Normal just as much as I do.
Monday, March 30, 2009
friends
This past weekend I went home and I realized that my life has changed so much in this past year. See a lot of my friends are still in high school, because when I was in my youth group in high school a lot of the kids just happened to be younger than me. I still have my college friends but as everyone knows not everyone is going to be home the same weekend you are going to be home. But last weekend one of my college friends from my youth group was home so I hung out with her for most of the weekend and we were talking about how we are almost done with our freshman year of college and how it was crazy that we were so scared of it during the summer. It was so nice because we went through almost eh exact same experience because we were the only ones from our youth group going to public universities in Illinois, and that scared us a lot because we really didn’t know a ton of people, but we made it through. After I hung out with her she had to leave to go back to school, because she was on spring break, I hung out with some of my younger friends and that just really showed how much different high school is than college. High school is filled with drama and gossip and I just felt that I was over it and I didn’t care about whatever was going on. But I think that it’s so weird because two of my best friends are in high school and it just seems so different. I love them to death but I think that it’s weird that we are so close because we are in two different worlds. I mean they will soon be in the “world” I’m in and it really won’t make a difference a couple years can make. I think that people who say that you are too old to hang out with a person are wrong, no matter how much the age difference is it is about how well the person gets you and is willing to try to understand you and listens to you and vice versa.
Koinonia!
This past year I have attended many events that are worthwhile here at ISU. Some have been on campus and some have been off campus, most of the activities that I have participated in have been good, but one really changed my life and that was when I went on a retreat with the Newman Center, it was an off campus activity. It was the retreat was called Koinonia. The retreat was an entire weekend in the fall and it was amazing. I met so many more people at Newman and I am so glad that I decided to go on it. The retreat was filled with talks and team bonding and it was probably one of the best weekends of my life. I can’t really go into detail about it because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who wants to go on the trip, but what I can say is that it was lead by college students who had been on the retreat before and they gave talks about their life experiences that and also on topics that others may have questions on. The whole retreat wasn’t just talks though we have a lot of free time in which we could pretty much do whatever we wanted to do: play football, go in and explore the corn field, go in the chapel, hang in the gym, and much more. Also another thing that I really enjoyed was the fact that you really didn’t have to worry or the distractions of the “outside” world. You did not have to keep track of the time or worry about being late to anything because everything we did was at the place we were staying at. I know a lot of people say that they have amazing retreats and that may be true, all retreats are good in their own way, but I honestly think that, that weekend was the best retreat that I have participated in. I cannot wait to be able to help lead the retreat so it can be a great retreat for others just like it was for me.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Spring Break 2009!!!
This past spring break I traveled to Oklahoma. Why Oklahoma, you may ask. I went on Alternative Spring Break, or ASB, with people from Illinois State University. ASB is an organization in which college students go places where they believe that people may need help. This is an organization that takes place around colleges across the country. At ISU we have 180 college students and some faculty staff travel to Boston, Florida, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Each location that we travel to has a different issue: Mississippi dealt with Hurricane relief, Boston dealt with hunger and homelessness, Florida dealt with environment issues, and Oklahoma dealt with Native American issues.
In Oklahoma my team got to go to a program called Head Start. Here we help children the youngest being 4 months old and the oldest probably being around 5 years old. In the classroom we help the teachers with whatever they may need to get done, but we also got to play with the children and we hung out with them. I was in a room that was full of infants, the youngest being 4 months and the oldest being 8 months. They were adorable children and even though they could not talk we still made a strong connection with all of them. They were so cute, just like most infants are. But I did not just make connections with them, but the people that I went to Oklahoma with. I was the site facilitator, so that kind of meant that I was in charge of a group. I did have a co leader as well and I think that we clicked so well and got along very well. I went with a bunch of people that I did not know at all in the beginning of the trip, but at the end I can call them my friends and I know that when I see them on the quad I can just go up to any of them and have a random conversation with them. This spring break was one I will never forget. I had so much fun with everything that we did and I will most definitely do it again, no doubt.
In Oklahoma my team got to go to a program called Head Start. Here we help children the youngest being 4 months old and the oldest probably being around 5 years old. In the classroom we help the teachers with whatever they may need to get done, but we also got to play with the children and we hung out with them. I was in a room that was full of infants, the youngest being 4 months and the oldest being 8 months. They were adorable children and even though they could not talk we still made a strong connection with all of them. They were so cute, just like most infants are. But I did not just make connections with them, but the people that I went to Oklahoma with. I was the site facilitator, so that kind of meant that I was in charge of a group. I did have a co leader as well and I think that we clicked so well and got along very well. I went with a bunch of people that I did not know at all in the beginning of the trip, but at the end I can call them my friends and I know that when I see them on the quad I can just go up to any of them and have a random conversation with them. This spring break was one I will never forget. I had so much fun with everything that we did and I will most definitely do it again, no doubt.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
What would I do....
I love to travel. So I think if I was given the amount of money for the four years of college, I would do a lot of traveling. I would grab a bunch of my friends together and we would go wherever but I know the places that I want to go and I will list a couple for you. I think the first place I would go to would be New Orleans, because I traveled there this past summer and I fell in love with everything there, the people, the city itself, everything. I would also travel to Disneyworld, because I want to go back so bad and love Disney things it makes me feel like a little kid again. The next place I would want to go would be New York, and see a couple of Broadway plays. Then I would probably travel overseas to Ireland because I am Irish and I would love to see where my relatives came from. Then I would go and travel to Poland because I am also Polish and I think it would be very interesting what it would be like to live there. Then I think that I would travel to Greece, specifically Santorini, because it is absolutely gorgeous there and I fell in love. I would also take a cruise throughout the Mediterranean Sea. The water is so blue and gorgeous. Probably after I was done with all of my site seeing and buying a bunch of things for my friends and family I would go somewhere where the money is absolutely needed and go there and help and offer anything I could so that I could make their lives easier in any way possible. I always feel bad about having things that other people do not have.
Throughout this adventure I think I would have great times and tons of new stories to tell. I also think that you have to travel with people so you can share those experiences with everyone you can. I hope that I will be able to do this someday but that’s a shot in the dark.
Throughout this adventure I think I would have great times and tons of new stories to tell. I also think that you have to travel with people so you can share those experiences with everyone you can. I hope that I will be able to do this someday but that’s a shot in the dark.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Dear Freshman
Dear Freshman,
Picking a college is one of the hardest things to do. I know for me is was difficult because not a lot of my friends were looking at the same colleges as me, so I had a different experience than them. One thing that I looked as was the type of education that the school was excellent at. Illinois State is known for their education programs. Since I am an education major it was a good choice. Other programs are here are very good as well, but ISU is known for their education programs. It looks very good for getting a job after you graduate for college. Another thing that I looked for was the size of the school. ISU is a very large school, but it does not seem that big. Maybe it’s the way that the campus is set up because it is in the shape of a square so it does not seem as big as say U of I. or maybe it is the small campus feel of activities going on every day. There is always something going on and everyone wants everyone to get involved. Another thing I looked at was some of the other activities I would like to get involved in during my years at college. So I decided to check out their Catholic Newman Center, because back home I was very involved with my youth group and I wanted to continue something like it when I traveled off to college. When it was time to look at the booths during Preview I went straight there and met our pastor and everyone at the booth was so nice and friendly and welcoming which I loved.
To sum it all up I would say look at what the academics are like for what you want to study, the size you are looking for, and what you want to get involved in during your four very short years of college.
Picking a college is one of the hardest things to do. I know for me is was difficult because not a lot of my friends were looking at the same colleges as me, so I had a different experience than them. One thing that I looked as was the type of education that the school was excellent at. Illinois State is known for their education programs. Since I am an education major it was a good choice. Other programs are here are very good as well, but ISU is known for their education programs. It looks very good for getting a job after you graduate for college. Another thing that I looked for was the size of the school. ISU is a very large school, but it does not seem that big. Maybe it’s the way that the campus is set up because it is in the shape of a square so it does not seem as big as say U of I. or maybe it is the small campus feel of activities going on every day. There is always something going on and everyone wants everyone to get involved. Another thing I looked at was some of the other activities I would like to get involved in during my years at college. So I decided to check out their Catholic Newman Center, because back home I was very involved with my youth group and I wanted to continue something like it when I traveled off to college. When it was time to look at the booths during Preview I went straight there and met our pastor and everyone at the booth was so nice and friendly and welcoming which I loved.
To sum it all up I would say look at what the academics are like for what you want to study, the size you are looking for, and what you want to get involved in during your four very short years of college.
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