It's Been a While

It's been a while since my last post and I feel bad about leaving such a gap between posting. Things in my life have been pretty crazy with papers, exams, work, oh and my laptop dying on me, that I haven't had a lot of time to blog.

Classes are the same as always but we're shifting into that time of the semester where group projects and studying for midterms are at the top of my To-Do List. I have two exams next Wednesay, Business Law and Operations Management. While I really like my professor for Business Law because he's kinda quirky and shares really amusing stories, his teachings don't coincide with the syllabus, so studying for his exam will be a blast.

My laptop died on me almost two weeks ago, and as a college student who is constantly glued to Facebook, I thought I would cease to exist without a constant connection to the internet. However, it was actually kind of nice to take a break from "who is dating who" and "what's the latest gossip". Facebook can get people into trouble and I was perfectly happy being ignorant of whatever was going on around me. But, my new laptop came in yesterday so now I have that constant connection to everyone's business, but I think I'll keep my distance.

We had a snowday Monday which was excellent! I have never had more than 2 days of classes cancelled here at Suffolk and the last time this happened was during finals week of Fall semester Sophomore year. I have mixed feelings about winter and the snow, but on Monday I decided to go out and walk around the city before the snow turned brown and gross. It was really pretty and mostly everyone looked miserable to be out, but I was thoroughly enjoying myself. Don't get me wrong though, I am ALL SET with the snow now. I'm ready for 50 degree weather, flip flops and skirts!

Oh a final note, I had some friends over a few weeks ago and I snapped a lovely picture of me, Allison and Chris (two other Ambassadors). Enjoy!

Yay Long Weekend!

I'm officially done with the first 5 weeks of the semester. Yay! 1/3 of the way through and it hasn't been too difficult yet. I've only had two exams, a quiz and a 60-second speech in my classes so far. This week is even better because it is a long weekend; no classes on Monday and to top that off, my 10 am class on Tuesday and Thursday is going to be online next week so I don't have to get out of bed for them. Come to think of it, I don't even have to wake up at my usual time next Tuesday and Thursday because our classes online are going to be discussion based through various threads on our Blackboard system.

Blackboard is a really nifty tool most professors at Suffolk use. They can upload the syllabus, homework assignments, grades, post announcements and have discussion boards. It's a great tool and I don't feel enough of the professors utilize it to its full potential. Personally, I'm a fan of professors who upload our grades right to Blackboard, so with a few click of the mouse I can see exactly how I did; they can even leave feedback on uploaded assignments.

With my class next week, there is one main topic we have to post our reaction to, and over a three day period, we have to post two additional comments about other student's thoughts, opinions and reactions. This should be pretty simple and I can do it anytime starting Tuesday and ending midnight Thursday...I'm certainly not complaining about being able to sleep in everyday but Wednesday next week.

On another note, I can't believe how warm out it is lately. For February, 50 degrees is really enjoyable, especially when we don't have to bundle up in jackets, scarfs and gloves. The snow is melting away and I'm not really sad to see it go; I'm looking forward to the springtime.

I don't have any plans this year for Spring Break which is a bummer, so I think I'll head to CT and work. I believe, if I have been persuasive enough, I will be going to Disney in either May or June this year which I'm thrilled about!

I always had visions of going on crazy spring break trips in college, you know the ones we used to see on MTV 5-10 years ago in Cancun where everyone is going crazy. Yeah, not so much in this economy. While a part of me really wishes I could go somewhere tropical with a bunch of my closest friends, another part of me knows it really isn't realistic when everyone is strapped for cash these days. Hopefully I'll go somewhere for spring break next year so I can say I traveled somewhere two of the four years in college.

On that note, I'm kind of hungry so I think I'll venture out into the world and find something to eat!

Sooo...

Government Center is a solid sheet of ice and I have to walk through it to get to class. I can't tell you how many times I almost fell walking through there today. I guess I'll take the T back to the North End again because I really don't want to relive that experience.

The snow yesterday was fine! Just the whole rain turning everything into ice is not something I enjoy.

Other than that, I gave a 60 second "elevator pitch" about myself today in my Interpersonal Effectiveness class and I think I did really well compared to everyone else who went up. I only said "um" once and I didn't even use a notecard. Gooo me! Everyone in the class was grading each other on different aspects such as eye contact, volume, how comfortable we were etc on a scale of 1-5. Then we had to give feedback as to what the speaker did well, and what they could have done to improve the speech. After I sat down someone asked the professor what they should do if they had no improvement feedback to give. Sounds like a good grade from that person at least!

And now on to filing and a class in 1.5 hours.

chris is better than haley

So in case anyone was wondering about my title, a wonderful new Ambassador, Chris, typed it because I had a post earlier in the year titled "Haley is Amazing" and he felt he had to top that.

Moving on to more important things, Suffolk didn't cancel classes today which was a little upsetting when I got up this morning, but I'm okay with going to class because if we had today off we would have to make it up sometime later in the semester, most likely on a Friday, and you won't catch me on campus on a Friday unless I'm going to work.

3 weeks down this semester, and the classes simply aren't holding my attention. I tend to space out the most in the Empires & Globalization and Operations Management classes; it figures I would do that since both of those professors have heavy accents. I'm not a fan of my history professor's teaching style where he'll talk about the PowerPoint slides, and then post them after the class so you end up with descriptive notes like "on the slide with the red blob..." yeah, it's going to be great trying to decipher those out.

My puppy hit 5 months yesterday! She's so sweet and I miss her so much. I went home two weekends ago and completely surprised my mom when I walked in the house, but I really went home because I wanted to see my puppy! I tend to sit on the kitchen floor a lot because Ruby will wander off and sit in your lap; she actually fell asleep in my lap when I was home last. I'm curious to see what's going to happen when she is full grown and tries to sit in our lap. Talking about her makes me miss her so much more! Sad.

Other than spacing out in class, not much else has been going on. Chris and I are discussing what we're going to have for dinner, and just like I'm at a loss of what to eat, he suggested the same things I tend to eat. Back to the beginning. It's almost time for me to go home! I really just want to get home before the weather gets really bad. It's raining now which is a problem because all the roads and sidewalks are icy! Here's to hoping I make it home in one piece!

And we're back!

The Spring 09 semester is now a week under way! If only I could say it was 10 weeks over with, but 9 weeks from now I will be able to say that. This semester is shaping up to be a challenge for me with 4 Management classes and 1 diversity requirement class.

Here's a look into my schedule if you're interested. On Monday's and Wednesday's I have 3 classes from 10-2:15; Business Law, Finance and Operations Management. Tuesday's and Thursday's I have Interpersonal Effectiveness and Empires & Globalization.

I'm anticipating a lot of reading for this semester, and issues with Finance and maybe Operations Management. When 3 of 5 professors have accents it's hard sometimes to really hear what they're saying and there are bound to be some issues.

My break was nice and relaxing. I was able to spend a lot of time with my puppy Ruby who is an absolute love! She's almost 5 months old now and I miss her tremendously! I make my mom take pictures of her and send them to me almost everyday. Unfortunately I didn't work much this break because with the current state of the economy, no one is really staying in hotels and spending money. I think out of 5 weeks I worked no more than 4 days at the hotel. Ugh.

Christmas was a lavish affair in terms of gifts. I got wonderful fleece sheets for my bed, a new iPod Touch, a red peacoat, the entire series (well the seasons I didn't have yet) of CSI Las Vegas and a whole bunch of other things like books, gift cards etc.

My best friend just moved down to Florida for school after two years at a local community college and a semester in South Africa, and I am extremely jealous of the warm weather she is enjoying. I want so badly to fly down and see her, but our spring breaks are a week apart, and it's a lot of money to fly down for 2 nights so I'll have to see what can be done.

Other than that there isn't much going on right now! I'll be sure to have some more interesting things as the semester progresses.