RELAY FOR LIFE

As I sit down to write this week, I do have life updates, but I decided to take this opportunity to shamelessly promote what I've mentioned before- the RELAY FOR LIFE!

Consider this. How much money do you spend in just one night at the bar? How much would you pay to go out to dinner? What do you drop on a random visit to the nail salon? Would you be willing to take this money- 5 bucks for a beer, 10 for dinner, 25 for nails- and donate it to cancer research just once a year?

If you're a student reading this, have you joined a team? Have you thought about joining a team? How much would you pay for a 12 hour concert, dinner, and the opportunity to sleep on the Carrier Dome turf? Would you throw down 10 bucks for all of that, plus the opportunity to dress up, be in a parade, and hang out with your friends all night? If so- REGISTER!

Just about every one of us knows someone who had cancer. If it wasn't a family member, it was a friend. It was a classmate's parent. It was a coworker. And it was devistating. This disease is out there. It doesn't discriminate. It takes the young, the old, the rich, the poor, man, woman, and so on. You may be thinking that this is a fact of life, and that there's nothing you can do. 

But you CAN HELP. Cancer treatment today is vastly different than treatment of even 10 years ago. What will the next 10 years bring? Without the support of the community, we'll never know. 

So here's the low down:

MARCH 28-29

6pm-6am

The Carrier Dome

Syracuse, NY

To Make a Team, Join a Team, or learn more:

www.relayforlife.org/syracuseuniversity

To Donate to me, and help me reach my goal:

MY PERSONAL PAGE

More than anything, I appreciate your prayers and support. 

Peace and Love. 

Teach For America

This has been a crazy, stressful, maxed-out week. The culprit to my stress? Teach For America. Yes, I joined countless do-goodie kids across the nation this week for  my final interview, and I can confidently say that no other interview process that I'll ever go through for the rest of my life can compare with the thourough and rigorous process that TFA makes you endure. After my interview, I was laying on my bed staring at the ceiling, without thought and completely drained. I felt like I had run a marathon. Stacey, my roommate, surveyed me and said "See, they do this to you so you know what just one day of teaching feels like." That kind of exhaustion is sobering. 

Like the rest of the application process, the interview was highly structured and extremely comprehensive. The day started out with all of us giving a stopwatch-timed 5 minute lesson. We had to teach a concept, provide visuals, give out handouts, and assess learning- all in 5 minutes!! I chose to teach the "herbivore, carnivore, omnivore" idea and made a venn diagram to help classify animals. I think I did really well- the key was obviously to pick a simple concept and practice your timing. Other kids definitely got caught mid-way through their lesson, so I felt good that I had practiced. 

The lesson portion was definitely the most harrowing part of the day. Everything was timed to the second, and we had to complete a written exam, and participate in a group discussion of interview pre-readings. We had to write an essay, and there was a question-answer session as well. Finally, we went to our one-on-one interviews. Mine lasted more than an hour, and we discussed everything from campus leadership to educational theory. I can't beleive how much they make you do in one day!

So, how did I do? Well...I think I did very well, but that doesn't mean anything. As with any interview, especially one so focused on a particular philosophy, the questions were loaded. So "how right" did I answer the questions is completely subjective. I do know that I carried myself confidently, spoke professionally, and can't identify any major mess-ups; that said, many of my esteemed peers have been rejected by the program after what they too felt were successful interviews. So, on March 10, I will find out. I'm crossing my fingers that they will place me somewhere young, warm, and exciting- I ranked a lot of southern cities. We'll see!

With the stress of TFA out of the way, I actually enjoyed my weekend very much. It was, of course, Valentine's day this weekend and I was lucky enough to have someone to share it with. Now, being the huge nerd I am, I've definitely seen my fair share of miserable Valentine's days (I NEVER GOT A CARNATION AT LUNCH....NEVER) but this one might have made up for all the bad ones. Justin reserved a huge room on top of the tallest building on campus, a room made of all windows, telling the authorities that there would be an e-board meeting that night. Instead, he actually set up a "rooftop dinner," complete with roses, fancy place settings and Miles Davis playing in the darkness. The only light in the room came from one candle on the table, the glow of the Carrier Dome and the city sparkle below.  I can't imagine how much planning and sneakiness he needed to make this happen: from precooking the food to setting up the table, it was a work of art. When we were done with dinner, we exchanged little gifts and then headed off to the Syracuse Symphony for their Valentine's day special. It was a lovely night and I'm a lucky girl!

   

My gift to Justin was a make-your-own bagel kit, since his last meal on earth might be a bagel and cream chese. Sunday, we made the bagels totally from scratch and they came out amazing!! Enjoy pictures from all my adventures this weekend, and check out last week's entry for some new bowling pics. Oh yeah, and I got a haircut! What do you think?

    

Peace and Love!

Merrily We Roll Along

I'm a pretty lucky girl to have so many great things to talk about! The week in review, or more specifically, the weekend in review. 

Thursday night, I was treated to a "just because" wonderful dinner at Delmonico's and a pair of tickets to a Sondheim review down at Syracuse Stage. It is amazing-so much talent finds its way to the Central New York area, but I don't think the students here take advantage of it at all. The show we saw featured Tony-award winning Broadway artists, right at the corner of Irving and East Gennessee. How does everyone miss this stuff? I admit that I'm a bit uneducated in the Sondheim scores, being the cheesy Rogers and Hammerstein girl that I am. But all the same, a night of beautiful scenery, broadway music, and delicious steak is always the best! Oh yeah, and we just happened to run into Jim Boeheim at Delmonico's too! I totally froze, and definitely made eye contact. I went to wave, but then remembered that he didn't actually know me. The result was an awkward penguin-arm and head nod. You'd think after a summer serving celebs in LA I'd be a little more cool....uughhh...

Friday night APO had its fall inductions. We're welcoming nearly 70 pledges this semester. It was the first time in many, many semesters that I sat out. I didn't have a little, and I wasn't on the eboard. The feeling was odd, but at least I have a shiny new grand-little to spoil ! As a second-semester senior, I'm feeling so old in the Fraternity!

Post inductions we got a group together and went bowling at one of the seediest alleys I've ever been to. Even the bowling shoes were sketchy, made of plastic and cracked through. The speakers blasted uncensored rap music, and there were probably 4 bowling balls in the entire place to use. But good company makes for good times, and we had an excellent group join us. I got a few strikes and devoured some surprisingly good buffalo wings. Plus, I feel like you know a person better after you see how they throw a bowling ball. 

Saturday, Justin and I went downtown to the Syracuse Symphony to catch a show called "Forbidden Broadway." You'd have to be at least a little bit of a Broadway dork to understand the show- it was a parody of all the biggest hits of the stage. For example, the song "Tomorrow," from Annie got twisted into "I'm turning 30...Tomorrow," as sung by the depressed and chain-smoking former child star that hasn't had a break since her Annie days. We loved the show and will be back to catch more Symphony performances before the year is out!

Finally, the weekend's close brought on the harsh reality of this upcoming week: namely, my Teach For America final interview on Wednesday. I've never had to jump through so many hoops to apply for something before. The process is rigorous and thorough and very intimidating, but also great experience. I have a lot of work to do before 9 am Wed morning- finalizing a mock-lesson, picking an outfit and re-reading the required discussion articles. The interview will be ALL DAY! I think I will do well, but I have seen many of my well-qualified peers rejected by the program for reasons I can't imagine.

Updates will follow next weekend- 

Peace and Love. 

A Very Happy Birthday

First and foremost, congratulations to the Mark side of the family on the Steeler's Super Bowl win. What a great game it was!  I know you were all biting your teeth when Arizona pulled ahead in the last quarter, but in Steelers style you guys pulled it out. I texted Mom at the game's end "Ok, fine. I'll move to Pittsburgh. Super bowl win= more jobs and better economy." Mom pushed hard for to move to the Steel City during my college search days, and since that failed her new crusade is getting me to move there post grad. Hey, you never know...

Unfortunately, I didn't go to any big parties for the Super Bowl. I confess that I was still pretty wiped out after Friday night's activities- better known as my birthday party! The dinosaur theme was a HUGE hit and about 50 people showed up to help me celebrate. We had TONS of food, an elite menu that included such delacacies as english muffin pizzas, mac and cheese, fries, dinosaur chicken nuggets, dinosaur sugar cookies, cake, and munchies galore. I replaced all the lightbulbs in the kitchen with red bulbs. I also built a plug-in volcano that gave the whole place a red, prehistoric glow. The entire apartment was decked with streamers and dollar store dinosaur decorations. And some people even dressed up: I have a friend whose dad is a palentologist and he came dressed in "paleo-denim", another girl made a stegosaurus necklace, and Justin showed up in a Fred-flinstone like cave man toga. By the end of the night, not a speck of food was left over and everyone was covered in dinosaur stickers. I'm so grateful to all my friends, especially my roommates, that helped me celebrate in such a wonderful way! 

The rest of my week was pretty standard, classes, meetings and chores. My Relay PR work is going well and I'm so proud of the team that I work with. We've been reaching out to all the student organizations on campus, attending meetings and encouraging them to join the event. The results have been pleasantly positive, with everyone from Club Japan to College Republicans making teams. This week, I'll begin work on the next phase: targeting local businesses and SU faculty and staff. The final phase will be with corporate sponsors, but that's still a ways off. Keep your eyes peeled- soon I'll be begging you all to sponsor me personally!

Peace and Love, and enjoy the party pictures below!