Intercollegiate QUIDDITCH.

That’s right folks, you heard it from me. Richmond’s got Quidditch. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “How can a magicless muggle play quidditch?” Well I’ll tell ya! We simply don’t fly (well most of us anyway). Other than that, it’s pretty much exactly the same as Rowling’s fictional extravaganza.

We play with 3 Chasers, 2 Beaters, 1 Keeper, and 1 Seeker (that’s me!). These 7 folks are free to sub out with a man on the sidelines if need be at any time. The game starts out much like dodgeball, in that the balls are all lined up in the middle (the Quaffle and the trio of Bludgers) and we start at either end. We set up 3 hoops on sticks all at different heights, all guarded by the keeper. Now, the chasers chase the quaffle and attempt to score while the beaters bludge with the bludgers, sending people to the floor ruthlessly.

What do I do? You could say I’m much like Harry Potter himself. I seek the golden snitch, but contrary to popular belief, the snitch is not a small gold ball with wings, its that person with the ball-sock on his pants I mentioned earlier. This ball-sock-pants man can run anywhere on this half of campus. N – E – WHERE!! From that astroturfy field he can go what seems like miles in every direction, and I need to find him and snag that snitch as the only way to end the game.

However, sometimes I’ll play chaser for kicks.

We hosted the Acromantulas’ (that’s Richmond’s quidditch team. Remember Aragog? That real big spidery dude? That’s what he was) first home game against both VCU and ODU (colleges in the area) just 2 days ago. After many victories, our record retained its undefeatedness, and we can easily claim best in state. But there was one game we played that day that I would love to enlighten you all of.

GAME 3 – VCU vs. ODU (Video coming soon! =])

Now I know you’re surprised that I chose to highlight a game in which we weren’t even a part of. But, you see, all the games against us were complete shut outs resulting in our victory, so those don’t need explanation. And, as you would not think, we were more involved in this game than we should’ve been. ODU, you see, is a rising team who is in desperate need of players. After playing only once against us just before, they claimed to have an immense number of injuries and that they could not compete anymore (I mean we are pretty beastly, but we don’t kill our opponents). So, being the generoso people that we are, we lent them some Richmonders to fill their open seats. An elite band of five Acromantulas had to change colors that day, a band in which I was a member. I served as their seeker, having this once dude to sub out for. This very dude, I’ll call him Marvis (because I swear his name started with an M, but I really have no idea), had a plan. Marvis would send me out first to seek out the snitch as it ran around campus, and as soon as the snitch returned to the field (as it has to every 10 mins or so) he’d take over and capture that sock. I agreed. I was a tad wiped from seeking in our game just before, but I was confident that I’d be fine.

So I lined up next to the hoops with ODUs and URs alike as the snitch was released. 30 seconds later they called “Brooms up!” and the game began! It was intense (like a camping trip! Get it? Like camping? Cuz you camp “in tents!” HAhaa…. Yeah that was pretty corny, I know). Wizards and witches were dodging, dipping, ducking, diving, and dodging like there was no tomorrow. I however, sprinted straight off the field in the direction I heard the snitch run while he was released. Now I knew this would be tough, because the snitch, provided by us, was an all-star cross-country runner with the stamina of a wildebeest.

After sprinting around campus for a straight 9.7 minutes, I raced back to the field to see if snitch boy had come home. Turns out he was waltzing around the field tackling chasers, and bludging beaters (all things the snitch runner is allowed to do). I swapped out with Marvis because the last game was starting to get at me. I chugged 3-7 water bottles and observed Marvis fail and capturing that snitch for a flat minute. After said minute, he comes back to the sidelines beat, panting and gasping for air.

“You need… to… switch with me…”

I thought about how he’d only been in for approx. 1 minute and he was in such terrible condition. Either this snitch was real good or this seeker was garbage.

I decided to not question it and ran into the field, burning my low energy tank past the E mark. I scrambled after that snitch like an egg in a frying pan (Get it? HAhaa…), but he was superb at swerving effortlessly out of the way. My finger tips were probably inches from that snitch at least 20 times, but inches weren’t good enough.

Marvis switched back with me in another failed flurry of snitch grabs and my heart was pounding with excitement: This dude is awesome at being the snitch! I need to forget about being exhausted and just beat this guy!

It wasn’t long before Marvis tagged me back in. This was it. “HERE GOES SOMETHING!!” I roared from the sidelines, sprinting on to the field faster than I had so far, barreling straight at him. The snitch turned to me just in time to roll out of the way, but as soon as he dodged, I stopped, leaving 6 foot skid marks on the field and I charged again. I have to get this, I have to, I just gotta!! I lunged for it, and for a moment, I felt like I was a real wizard, soaring after the golden snitch.

This is an actually unedited photo from the game of that very moment.

My flight just barely missed the snitch and I got back to the sidelines, realizing I needed to sub once again. In the end, ODU did capture the snitch thanks to that sub (who wasn’t Marvis) from our team switching over to seeker and at full energy, he eventually succeeded. However, in muggle quidditch, the captured snitch is only worth 30 points, versus the 150 from the books, resulting in ODU’s defeat either way.

Game 4 and 5 were a breeze, and as I said, we went undefeated. The teams went home and we celebrated our successful fall season with a feast at D Hall! Man I love college…

Warm Regards,

Nick Candido
nick.diary@richmond.edu

How’s everything out there in the wonderful world of college prep? Hopefully all is well.

Things are going great over here! After a mentally exhausting week consisting of two tests, a Spanish presentation, and a paper, this weekend has been amazing! On Friday, my two best friends and I went out to eat and to the movies, and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Saturday was very busy, but in a good way—first was the football game, then out to eat with my best friend and her mom, then I saw a play in UR’s very own Modlin Center, and after that I went to a party put on by the Deltas and the football team.

Now let me tell you all about the game. Well, for starters, it was the last regular football game of the season, we were playing William and Mary (ranked right below us with a 9-1 record), and we were competing for the CAA title. Both teams were setting up great plays and working hard on defense, as the fourth quarter was winding down, the score was tied 10-10. The Tribe turned over the ball with about a minute left on the clock, so it was time for the Spiders to do some fast and fancy footwork or else go into overtime. They were making it down the field, but not fast enough. With two seconds left in the game, the Spiders lined up somewhere around the 30-yard line and prepared to go for a field goal. Now while this seems a plausible option, our kicker had missed two out of the three field goals he had kicked that game. So, naturally, the crowd seemed skeptical that the play would amount to anything. However, all I remember was the snap and the ball flying through the goal posts and the team and the crowd going wild. What a moment! This Spider football team might actually make a football fan out of me yet.

I had a great time today, too. Ngoma hosted a dance workshop, and it was very successful. People from the community interested and/or involved in African dance came out to enjoy the wonderful teaching of Babacar N’Diaye. What I love about African dance is that you learn by doing, and it’s okay to add your own style to it. From children as small as five to seasoned adults, everyone had something to learn and something to give. We danced our hearts out and were quite tired by the end of the two hours of myriad high-energy and challenging dance sequences. I don’t know if I’ve ever worked that hard in a period of two hours! With such a great response, we are bound to continue these workshops in the future, and I am looking forward to them.

That’s all for now, Prospectives. I need to go pack my bags for Thanksgiving break because I am leaving tomorrow evening. Best wishes to you in all of your endeavours!

Amani

After my last entry, people have come to realize that my life is full of receiving free random stuff. They continue to ask how I do it, yet my answer continues to be “I have no idea, man. It might just be my boyish good looks.” But all modesty aside, I actually do get a lot of free stuff. Thinkin’ back on my entries I could list several things since college started:

• a can of Tostitos salsa
• a 10×14 inch Queen of Diamonds
• a medium red PowerAde from Tyler’s Grill
• a Ponyo poster
• a slice of pepperoni sausage bacon and garlic pizza
• a nifty 2008 football championship towel
• a Spider Flash drive thing emblazoned with the words Class of 2013
• 5 Papa John’s bottle openers
• A lanyard thing with a keyring from the Office of the Chaplaincy + 1 bag of Sun Chips
• 40+ bananas and apples from Dhall (At least 100 Lays potatochips)
• A bottle opener shaped like a key from some officey place
• A dozen Papa John’s plastic cups
• 50 plastic spoons for soupin’ it in the dorm
• A Large Sweet Tea from Micky Ds
• You get the idea

It’s kinda like free stuff just smacks me in the face wherever I go, and it’s awesome. That last one on the list “A Large Sweet Tea from Micky Ds” (no not “You get the idea,” you smart alecs) and its origin I plan on discussin’ right nowish.

First off, I was waltzin’ thru Commons, just minding my own mind, when I came across this table. At it sat a collegeman with a heavily filled in beard stuffed with leaves and twigs, so I stopped to give him some advice.

“Dude, stop using the forest as a razor and borrow my Gillette”

Too bad I never actually said that to him. Actually, at the time this quote wasn’t even a thought I had. I thought of that quote just now as I was typing this a while after I physically saw the guy, but I thought it would be funny if you thought that I thought of that funny quote at the time and actually told him, but in reality that little exchange never happened. In fact, it really wasn’t an exchange at all because he didn’t say anything back to me because I never said anything to him, giving him no reason to respond to my statement because it was never said…

ANYWAYS, if you didn’t understand that last paragraph, don’t worry about it, cuz neither do I. I’m rereading it now actually and still doesn’t make any sense, so lets just act like it’s not there (I know I could delete it, but then I’d have to delete this, and then… let’s get back to the story).

As you may’ve noticed, I mentioned going on a Hike, let’s talk about that. I actually went on this hike about 2 months ago, but I really liked it, so i feel i deserves an article. And, it was at that table with the beard dude where I heard about this group called Natural High. The coming weekend this crew had a hike planned at 7:30AM… Now I have trouble getting to my 1:30PM class sometimes because I’m sleeping, so this didn’t really quench my thirst for adventure. Surprisingly, I decided to go anyway. Determined I got to sleep around 3AM the day before and had many alarms set to wake me.

Turns out I got up before all of them, but I still managed to be late to the hikers bus. As I was walking onto the bus that thankfully hadn’t left yet, I swear I heard someone yell “Could someone pass the TARDY sauce?!” (Alright, that was another quote that I decided to add now to make my daily life sound more interesting, but c’mon, it was funny, right?). So we headed to this mountain range called Crabtree Falls I believe and we hiked as if we were climbing a small staircase, easy as cake ( never understood that phrase… I can’t cook more my life. I burn my cereal in the morning).

After we took in the sights above, we headed back, but it turns out: 2 people were left behind!! The headcount was thought to be right and we left… but there was a pair of folks still chillin’ in the high hills. The ranger said he’d bring ‘em to where we were at the moment, so we stopped in a lot and played the waiting game.

To pass the time more entertainedly, we started watching Knocked Up on the coach bus’s TVs, but the volume broke… so heard nothing… which makes it hard to follow the movie. I gave up on that and decided I needed a burger. So I walked into McDonalds, happy as a horse and was about to order when I realized my wallet was hanging out with my laptop in my dorm. While those two were partying, my stomach was aching in its own hunger. I walked over to the conveniently connected-to-McDonalds gas station and asked for a glass of water, which would hardly do the trick, but it was my last resort. She handed me a cup and on my way out, back thru Micky Ds, a man grabbed me shoulder and in a deep, Barry White-esque voice murmured, “Son, how would you like to try my sweet tea.” Now most people’s initial reaction request would be to run, but I just turned around with a blunt “Yes, yes I do.”

He brought me over to the drink fountains (turns out he worked in McDonalds) and offered me all the free sweet tea as I could ever desire, asking simply if it was too sweet. I told him I’d have to try 5 or so cups before I could give him an adequate analysis on his beverage and he happily kept pouring.

Moral of the story: Go on hikes and your future will be full of free sweet tea.

Warm Regards,

Nick Candido
nick.diary@richmond.edu

 PS. Watch this:


What’s poppin’ chief? Here’s the news. I was in my room after a long day of getting up early for econ (10:30AM… it’s a doozie lemme tell ya) doing CORE reading (100 some odd pages of House of Mirth, which ain’t half bad, but it is reading…) and attempting to get this lousy swine flu vaccine (dumb place closes after my morning class and opens right when my second class starts), when I realized I was destined for something better. I was destined for a small break. Just 45 mins to myself to spend how I will. Naturally, I never ask for this, I hate being alone, it sucks cuz it’s so boring, buuuuuut I’ve found a way to spend the spare time I have when hanging out isn’t a possibility:

Laugh if you want but this has to be one of the greatest cinematic feats since Heroes Season 1. This show has class, style, grace, and humor, enticing all of my TV show needs. It made me wish my days as a high schooler were full of Mr. Schuster teaching me to sing and dance. Anywho, I was about 3:17 time units into episode 10 when my cell starts blasting Kung Fu Fighting by The-Guy-Who-Sings-It and I shuttered (last time my phone blasted that song… oh boy. But that’s a tale for another time). Post-shutter, I answered it. My pal Tigran, whose name I didn’t get correct until a month of knowing the guy (I’d substitute it fun little things like “T-money,” “T-Bone,” “Tiggles” simply cuz all I could remember was the T), said he wants to start a frat, Lambda Kai Alpha. I was like “sure man, what do ya need”, and he was all like “Come to Commons, I have a Lambda alum to see us.”

So I did… I had to pause Glee and see this chap lecture on Lambda Kai Alpha and he was pretty cool. All about Integrity and helping people grow as people and stuff. After that I started getting texts from my amigos back home, so as I texted away, Tigran and Edderic (another Lambda Kai enthusiast) led me to some random room where they were meeting their friends. Never really looking up, I kinda felt lost, cuz I had no idea where we were. I averted my eyes from my phone and found that I was in some random club gathering.

I was like, Whatevs, ooooo free food! I sped to the table and had some foreign danish and some apple cider (which I found out is either exactly the same thing as apple juice or Shop&Stop is just real dumb) and I saw someone I knew.

“You take Spanish, Nick?” Liz asked.
“What? Nope!”
“French?”
“I’m waitin’ til next year.”
“Why’re you here? Haha, this is Spanish and French club”

What in the world were we doin’ here? So I continued to feast and Edderic and Tiggles decided to head out. Apparently, you have to be a Language student to be at this exclusive meeting. Whatever, the food’s good, so I stuck around.

Then the competition started.

We made teams of four and we were all asked questions about the history and culture of Spain and French, and I’m no International Studies major so… heck, I haven’t taken Spanish since sophomore year in highschool… So I had to put my superb negotiation skills to work

“Guys, hear me out on this one. What if…I… raised my hand, cuz I can do that real fast! And you answered the questions?”

They bought it. Talk about victory and you’re probably talking about Team 3. We trumped the competition. My awesome reflexes in combo with their superior knowledge made an epic team. Team 1 and 4 were eliminated for being mucho inferior, and we made it to the Finals. It was time to get our game on! They tossed us a barrel of tough questions and my pals struggled, so I decided to lend them my other hand (my first hand was devoted solely to raising). The question was as follows, and I quote: “What year was the French Revolution?” Boom, AP Euro all over again… too bad that class was far from my forte… I froze. So much so that I was colder than the ice that chilled the club’s cider. My raising hand wouldn’t budge. I made a video about this (and aside from my historical narration its HI-larious)! What was that dumb year….

The French Revolution,©2009 CandidoCorp™ in collaboration with Reach for the Sky Productions™

There it was, the other team’s hand judging us, taunting us with its raised-ness. Then their answer was spoken:

“1776?”

HA! Incorrect!! I knew that it was definitely after the American Rev, c’mon guys, shape up! Now was our chance, if we stole those points, we’d have it, but one more wrong answer ans we were finished. 1780…..something 81? 84? pi/12? It was one of them years. 1789! That’s it!

Sadly, as soon as I had my brain blast, my teammate stepped up and took the initiative. “1784.” Defeat. His answer was wrong as mayonnaise on bananas, granting us our third and final strike. Team 2, our competition, won a DVD and some salsa… and us runner ups didn’t get squat. Sadface… Then I had an idea:

“Can I have some salsa?” And with that I snagged some free salsa and even this nifty Queen of Diamonds and the rest of the cider (I kinda just grabbed that on my way out). Then I walked home and typed this for y’all while listening to the Space Jam soundtrack.

Warm Regards,

Nick Candido
nick.diary@richmond.edu

Chapter 2 - Two Movies and a Formal

It’s not often that I go to the movie theatre two times in one month, so the fact that I went to watch Paranormal Activity and 2012 in the past couple of weeks surprises even me. The former movie I saw just in time for Halloween and the latter just this past weekend. One is about a couple being haunted by evil spirits and the other about the end of the world. Cheerful story lines, huh? It must be this continuous dreary weather that’s put me in the mood to write about such depressing subjects. Before I go any further, I’m gonna assure you that you’re not gonna suffer through me trying to be a formal movie critic or anything like that, I’m just gonna give you guys my quick impressions of the films.

Paranormal Activity - If you were a fan of The Blair Witch Project or even Cloverfield (in other words if you’re a fan of the whole “movie shot on a camcorder” deal), then you’d probably enjoy this movie. Although the movie starts out with some humorous bits between the main characters (a couple that lives in San Diego), the pace picks up as frightening occurrences are caught on camera by the boyfriend. The movie is shot as if you were watching the actual footage that the boyfriend takes on his camera - he’s trying to get some proof of a ghost that his girlfriend says she’s haunted by. My only complaint with the movie is that the pace doesn’t pick up fast enough and by the time it really starts getting adrenaline-pumping, it ends. People had hyped up the movie too much for me, calling it the “scariest movie of the decade,” and so I must admit that when I left the theatre I was slightly disappointed. However, some of my friends were scared out of their wits during the movie while a couple others actually genuinely laughed during tense scenes. All I can say is, if you thought this was scary, go watch Japanese horror movies.

 Dinner at Chili’s before 2012

2012 - Not a horror flick, but not exactly a feel good movie, either, I found 2012 to be entertaining, but not much else, (I guess I lied when I said I wasn’t going to go all movie critic on you). Decent acting, amazing effects, but a story line that has gotten a little old after Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow (coincidentally produced by the same man). Basically, it’s the end of the world again, this time not because of aliens or global warming but from increased heating of the Earth’s core. Some of the lines are unnecessarily cheesy and some of the chase sequences a little too exaggerated, but don’t get me wrong, I was thoroughly entertained. If you liked those two movies I previously mentioned, go see this one.

Now on a completely unrelated topic, exactly two weeks ago was the Homecoming Formal, an off-campus dance with a live band. It was great to hear covers of some of my favorite songs while I spent the evening getting my groove on with some good friends. It was my first time in a suit since our class of 2013 picture and although neckties can get annoying, I must admit once in a while it’s nice to dress up and put make-up on. Anyway, the Formal is just one example of the multiple great events you can go to at Richmond, especially during Homecoming week. We had a “Tailgate” dinner at D-Hall, which was pretty much just lots and lots of awesome food, balloons, and good cheer. There was a live comedy show and even a bonfire, too. Of course there was a Homecoming game for our Division 1 football team… unfortunately, it was our first loss of the season (unfortunate in that we lost that game, not in that it was only our first loss, duh).

Butter, the band at the Formal, rocked through some classics but also played some modern stuff

Anyway, reminiscing about that tailgate dinner made me hungry. I’m famished, and everyone knows you can’t write when you’re starving! Since I’m so ravenous (all these synonyms for “hungry” are so much fun) I must go satisfy my appetite by getting my paws on some food. Later, guys!

-Shohsei

Chapter 1 - The Adventures of a Banana or How I Spent Halloween Sick

I realize that mentioning Halloween is somewhat anachronistic (and that the new fad is getting psyched for Thanksgiving), but my Halloween just happened to coincide with a college first-timer that I have to say something. A week before Halloween I’d gone shopping to get the best costume ever. EVER. Sadly, I can be rather unimaginative sometimes and I ended up buying a Banana suit, accompanying a friend’s Hot Dog outfit. Apparently the theme was going to be food. There were thousands of choices - MJ, Spartans, sexy nurses, Wolverine (wait, sexy nurses?!), but the Banana costume appealed the most to me (get it? …aPEELed) so I put down the 30 bucks or whatever ungodly price it was (considering I was only going to wear it two nights) and packed it away for the upcoming weekend.

 Because bananas and hot dogs make a good combo meal…?

Sadly, that Thursday I was up until 5 am studying for a Philosophy exam. Fun stuff, especially when I had to study knowing that I was missing a great off-campus Halloween party. I woke up on Friday, went to my morning class, chugged a gallon of coffee, and took my exam at 1:30, after which I was planning on taking the most epic nap ever. EVER. However, I get back from my exam and one of my hallmates is playing guitar so I go join him. We riff through a handful of songs, jamming away. The caffeine was keeping me up when I really needed to rest. Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for SPIDER MAYHEM! Spider Mayhem is the annual kick off of both men’s and women’s basketball teams’ seasons. Realizing that I wasn’t going to get to take my nap (the most epic nap ever, EVER), I simply put on my Richmond Rowdies tee and joined my friends in the crowd (one of whom actually got picked by chance to participate in the dunk contest).

Afterwards there were countless Halloween festivities to attend, one in particular that I’d promised a friend to go to. Did I get to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve’s Eve at all? Nope, because my body told me it was shutting down, as I got shivers and what felt like a slight fever. Sick on Halloween?! That thought was scarier than the guy in the Jason costume I’d seen that day! Deciding not to take any risks, I stayed in that night, just talking with some other friends who were spending a Friday night in. It was officially my first time being sick in college and it sucked, but it wasn’t the end of the world. People always say how you really get homesick when you’re sick in college, but I actually managed not to miss my mommy too much. I spent Saturday resting so that I could actually do  fun things come Halloween night, which I did. It was great to see all the different costumes, there were even a couple of other bananas, too! So even though I got to wear my costume only one night (some of my friends and I are actually considering just going to Wal-Mart in our costumes to really get out money’s worth out of them), it was all good fun.

 Me, Borat, and a Pregnant Nun

So I just realized that I’m nearing 800 words and since I have so much more to say, I’m going to “chapter-ize” the events into different posts. (Chapter-ize sounds like some kind of medieval punishment, doesn’t it?) I just went back and titled this “The Adventures of a Banana or How I Spent Halloween Sick”… next up, “Two Movies and a Formal.”

See ya guys, soon! Like really soon, because I’m gonna write the next post like… right now.

-Shohsei

This Saturday I went to Jamestown, Williamsburg and Prime Outlets for shopping .Dr. Nuray Grove, the English as a Second Language instructor, organized the trip for her students in her ESL class. I am not in that class (I guess the University believed my English is good enough), but because there were some free spots, she invited other international students and I got to go.

I was impressed by everything I saw. I was a little surprised by how much it resembled some old places in Europe that I used to visit quite often. I imagined USA as “the land of modernity”, where everything was new and advanced, while in Europe, as the old continent, it was natural to find some beautiful medieval places. But apparently there is not always the case, as these beautiful pictures from the “new continent” show:

I saw another face of America, an older, more peaceful one.

I am not sure how much of it is actually American though. It was interesting to see the British flag virtually everywhere. It reminded me that Jamestown was just an European settlement across the ocean. The true character of the USA was formed after the British left…

I had lots of fun that day, and I was happy to spend some more time with other international students. I really don’t care what nationality my friends are, and it’s not a criterion for choosing my friends. And since nationality is a random factor in this process, and since this campus is mostly populated by Americans, there was a much greater probability to pick at random ( nationality-wise) American friends (just in case you missed the nerdiness of my posts : ) ). I know many international students (thanks international orientation!) and am friends with many; but I am not one of those who hang out only with internationals. This was a perfect day to catch up!

I am sorry we didn’t take many group photos; this one is the only one I found with more than 2 people. From the left, Nikolay, Danyi, and me:

But we took a lot of crazy individual photos:

Of course, then was shopping! Because I only brought a few winter clothes from home, and I decided a while ago that it would be much cheaper to buy clothes from here than have my parents send me from home as was the original plan, and I was extremely busy (or lazy!) lately to go shopping, this was the perfect opportunity. But send a girl with reasons to shop in a big mall! Guess what happens! Money flows away out of my pockets (or debit card, whatever)! When my parents heard about how much I spent, I drove them crazy. It would have probably been cheaper to send me stuff from home after all. But I don’t care! I was happy!

I had a very great time, even if by the end of the day I was simply exhausted. Recently I formed the habit of taking naps in the evening, and on Saturday I took 2-3 naps after 8:30 PM when I got to my room! It was totally worth it, even if I didn’t do anything to ease the very busy week I have in front of me.

See you soon! And remember, less than a month to apply for Richmond Scholars!

Over the summer, I re-realized my life-long goal of becoming a veterinarian. It was really random. I was reading an article on AOL news about cat meows and reciting random lines from it for my mother. She made an off-handed comment that I’m sure she hadn’t meant for me to take seriously. “You can still be a vet, you know.” For the longest time, I’d shoved it to the back of my mind and tried to bury it beneath forced interested in what most people consider “successful” careers. I’d talk airily about majoring in finance or pursuing law, ignoring the gut-wrenching feeling, the terrible and ever-present fear of being bored for my entire adult life after throwing myself into a field that I had absolutely no real interest in. When my mom said that, it was like someone threw a switch inside of me. I remembered what it was like to really want something again.

 Friends at Richmond Animal League (aka my favorite place to work/visit)

 I’m the kind of person who lives to impress. It felt good telling my family that I’d be going into the fields they’d had planned out for me, changing up my story a little bit depending on who I was talking to. Then I realized that no matter how good everyone else felt about what I was doing or what I told them I was doing, it still wouldn’t make me enjoy it any more. I still hate knowing that even though my family wants me to be happy, they’re still disappointed I’m not going to be raking in a six-figure salary. I’m alright with it now, more so than I was. I have a direction again, one that I’m thrilled about. For the first time in quite awhile, I’m excited about the rest of my life. And that is a fantastic feeling.

Nothing can make me as happy as puppies do! McDonald’s is a close second. Mmm.

I suppose the whole point of this little rant was that no matter what your family tells your, there’s something out there that you’re supposed to be. This is one of those you-knew-it-all-along-you-just-didn’t-know-you-knew things that they talk about in movies, I think. I was lost, but I found myself…and so can you. Listening helps. Listening to yourself, to your friends, and to the silent space that surrounds you every night as you fall asleep. Don’t I sound like I know what I’m talking about? 

Greetings to all prospective students from 25,000 feet. I am currently flying back from a whirlwind visit to Atlanta, Georgia. Every year, my scholar group goes to a major city and hangs out together for an entire weekend. Thus far, I’ve been to Chicago, New York, and now Atlanta. The University covers any and all expenses, which is amazing since they give us the royal treatment. We are flown round-trip from Richmond, stay in four-star hotels, are given tickets to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and also an Atlanta Hawks basketball game, and have an amazing opportunity to hang out with friends. Seventeen of us went this year and I was the only Junior, since the rest of them are currently abroad, but that meant that I got to know the new freshmen really well. While in Atlanta, I visited the CNN headquarters, the Coca-Cola Museum, and also attend the Second City Comedy Club, which was really funny. Others visited the Georgia Aquarium and Underground Atlanta. They dine us at amazing restaurants such as McCormick and Schmicks as well as Table 1280. Simply put, they give me an opportunity to have experiences that I couldn’t have anywhere else. It truly is incredible. I would estimate that, in total, they spend $1,000 on each student.

So, I bet you’re now wondering how you can have these experiences. Well, I’ll tell you. All you have to do is get your application in to the University of Richmond by December 15th. That’s all. Nothing more. You’re automatically considered for merit-based scholarships with that. If you make it to the next round, you’ll write an additional essay and perhaps even move on to the on-campus interview round in March. Each year, UR gives roughly fifty full-ride scholarships, that means about one in every thirteen students comes here for free. I don’t think any other school can even come close to that. So, make sure to apply in time. There are several types of scholarships, but here is what mine (Oldham) gives me: full tuition, room, and board, a $3000 stipend for study abroad or research, priority course registration, priority housing, free tickets to our Modlin Center, and, of course, this annual trip. Pretty cool, huh? Here’s a photo recap of this year’s trip to the ATL.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing “From Russia With Love”
A group of us celebrating a birthday at a karaoke diner

Finding a Christmas wonderland in Atlanta

The Georgia Aquarium

CNN Headquarters in Atlanta

The Coca-Cola tour with Chamberlain

Atlanta Hawks game

Exploring Atlanta with my new friends

Quote of the Week: “A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.” -Anonymous
YouTube Video of the Week:

A recent viral hit 

It’s sometimes difficult to believe that such a wonderful place of scholarly endeavor exists. You study in the social sections, or in the quiet rooms, surrounded by books, some that barely touch the shelves for a moment before being picked up again, and some that have been waiting to be picked up since 1983. There’s some thing about this place that makes you want to learn. Like my friend Nick says, “There’s just so much knowledge.” and it’s a sad day when you realize that you can’t possibly absorb it all.

Nick. Studying hard.

I avoided Boatwright Memorial Library like the plague during my first few weeks here. I stared up at its massive tower and watched seniors file out of its doors, discussing the ten page paper they were working on for Wednesday, then ran in the other direction, deciding that the Commons was the safe place for a Freshman to study.

Safe, maybe.
Quiet, no.

It wasn’t until my first Library class that I ventured inside and realized exactly what I was missing. There were computers and study carols and chairs that made you want to fall asleep rather than read Plato. But most importantly, there were kind upperclassmen. I didn’t have a flashing red sign hung around my neck. People couldn’t possibly tell that I was a freshman, unless I asked a stuttering question, like “H-h-hi. Uh, heh, how do you work these moving shelves?” And even then, they jumped up to help me. Like I said. There’s something about this place.

And yes, I’m in the biblio right now…

…right here actually.

Incidentally, I’m working on my fiction piece for a Creative Writing class that I’ve been meaning to mention. Small word of advice, from English major to you: If you are offered the chance to take a class from a guest professor, chances are that the opportunity will be irreplaceable. Take it. : )

Over the summer, while I was in France with a teacher from high school, I received a phone call from my Dad.
“Hey, kid. Guess what?”
Usually, during phone calls home from France, I was the one with the exciting news.
“Well, I was checking your spidermail and…”
Are you alarmed? Yeah, me too. But my password was scrawled on a piece of paper that I left on my desk, and even though I didn’t like the prospect of my Dad logging on to my email account while I was an ocean away, I got over it.
“…you’ve been asked to apply for a creative writing class! Kate. It’s being taught by an award winning novelist.”

Whoa.

They wanted me to send in a sample of my creative writing by July 3rd… the day before I would come home from France. Suddenly the creepiness of my Dad’s email surfing disappeared. THANK YOU SO MUCH for checking my email, Dad. Can you look up this piece I wrote senior year?

: ) I owe him. Big time.

Because now, I am nearing the end of my structure in fiction workshop taught by Colson Whitehead. Assignment: Write and workshop a piece in which you create a fictional world. Current number of pages: 23. Goal: 30-40. Stress level: alarmingly low… because I am enjoying every moment of this class. We meet once a week and spend most of our time reading and editing our classmates pieces, discussing them as a group as the author sits trembling in the mandatory “cone of silence”. It’s a frightening process, having your piece critiqued, especially when you’re not allowed to jump in and say “No, no! You’ll find that out later!” But after you go home and sort through the 12 copies of your piece that are soaked with ink and bursting with suggestions, you’re grateful for the help.

I can’t wait to have a completed product, and although it’s a little frightening that I only have one grade for an entire semester, I’m proud of what I’ve done so far. Our fiction class has become a kind of family, helping each other to create the best we can. Such a good feeling. : )

Anyway, I best be going. Those pages won’t write themselves, and in fact I don’t want them to.

Later,

Katie

I have had to finally face the fact that I have to grow up. Not that I think I’m horrendously immature right now, but I can’t keep running around, pretending that I will never graduate and thinking that I don’t need to look for a job. As hard as it may be for me to believe, I am on the second half of my college career with the end rapidly approaching. With that in mind and my resume in hand, I began searching for an internship for the coming summer. You may ask, “But Ben, isn’t summer seven months away still?” and the answer would be yes. However, it’s a long process and I’m doing my best to look at all of my options. Ideally, I would return home to Wisconsin for the summer. I’ve been away doing mathematics research here at UR and also studying abroad for my past two summers and haven’t seen my family or friends very much. However, an opportunity came up for me to interview for a summer sales internship with Altria (parent company of Phillip Morris). I went to the first interview and it went so well that I was invited to a second round of interviews. That happened today and that also went incredibly well. So, now I need to wait and see if they invite me back for the next stage. Even though this internship would require me to stay in Richmond, it is a good opportunity and I need to at least look into it.

Also keeping me busy for this week were a test, a presentation, a symposium lecture, and numerous other things. One fun thing was the creation of a video for the University of Richmond’s Speech Center. There is an annual Speech Center Administrators Conference and my boss asked me to create a video telling why the conference should be held at UR in 2011. Since I’ve done these types of projects numerous times, I obliged. It was a fair amount of work, but I think that it turned out well. I’m quite proud of the fact that I was asked to create a video proposal for a nationwide conference. It was even cooler when I was asked to attend the conference in Chicago this weekend to introduce the video. However, I had prior plans, which are also pretty cool. You’ll see what I’m talking about when you come back next week. For your entertainment, I’ve posted my video below:

The Speech Center Conference video proposal I made

So, I’m clearly not sitting around playing kickball at recess and eating PB&J for lunch everyday. Instead, I’m having daily meetings, job interviews, lectures, and numerous group projects. Peter Pan has flown me back from Neverland and dropped me in the middle of reality. I’ve come to face that fact and view myself as much more of an adult than I would like, but I’m slowly starting to realize that that’s not really a bad thing… right?

Quote of the Week: “I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temorarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.” -Mitch Hedberg
YouTube Video of the Week:

Street Art

Help is less available for internationals, but that doesn’t mean there is NO help available. You should definitely look for help. One of the things I learned after one year in which I didn’t get accepted anywhere was that I couldn’t do anything by myself, so I started looking for professional help.

You can find all the professional help you need for free at the Educational Advising Centers associated with the Fulbright commissions in your countries. Here is a link where you can find further links to the Fulbright commissions.

Last year I have been going to the Fulbright commission in Romania and they helped me very,very much. In there, I had access to books that helped me prepare for SAT, Toefl, and admission essays. I found most useful taking part in some of their group advising sessions, where we were taught about recommendations, essays, and analyzed some success stories of Romanian students who were accepted to US colleges. Over the summer, after I got accepted, they organized a pre-departure orientation, where I learned many useful tips about life in the US. You can find some photos from the event here.

I don’t know for sure if all Fulbright Educational Advising Centers are as useful as Romanian one, but I imagine they are, and even if they don’t, they still offer some opportunities that you can’t probably find anywhere else in your country.

The only drawback is that they are available in one or two cities throughout the country, and for people who don’t live in those cities it may be hard to commute. In my last year of high school, I only went a few times at Fulbright because I couldn’t miss school to go to Bucharest during weekdays. Last year, when I lived in Bucharest, it was much easier. But you can still get lots of advice through email.

Other than Fulbright commissions, there are certainly many private tutors that help with US applications. I am pretty sure you can find them in any country. You have to pay them, I doubt there are professional people out there who work for free. Only that while some are brilliant, not all of them are very good, so it is a very good idea to ask around for other students’ opinions about them.

You can always ask for information from students who already got in. I was lucky to have many older friends in US colleges, some of which helped me throughout the entire process. I think I had at least a friend in half of the schools I applied to, and for the others, I usually looked on Facebook for Romanian students in there.

Of course, you can always ask me for help at any point. But I’m warning you that I’m very biased about Richmond. I just love it here!

Bottom line, no matter which way you choose, just ask for help. It will make your life much easier.

Ok, now some specific advice for UR. Especially if you need a good amount of financial aid (and I know that most internationals do), do yourself a favor and apply by December 15 to be considered for Richmond Scholars. You probably know that UR is not need-blind for international students. Internationals seeking full rides are the most competitive pool of applicants. I think it is as hard to get a full ride as an international as it is to get a Richmond Scholarship. If you apply in time to be considered, you practically have one chance to get the scholarship, and if you don’t get it, you still have the chance to get financial aid. Besides, as a Richmond Scholar, you have more advantages. The most important in my opinion is priority registration. I got to register on Wednesday afternoon, but the rest of the (huge) freshman class had to wake up at 7AM to register on Thursday, and classes filled up so quickly, that many of them didn’t get into any of their first choices

Good luck with applications!

Hope you all enjoyed the past week and aren’t too bogged down by schoolwork. Thankfully, this has been another week with a light workload for me, so I have definitely enjoyed it.

Last weekend actually set the tone for my week. Friday night was our Ngoma bonding activity, which I know we all enjoyed. Some of our members cooked and other food was bought, and we just hung out and had a good time together. After that was Spider Mayhem, which is the annual event where the men and women’s basketball teams are introduced and provide entertainment for the UR students in attendance. There were contests, prizes, food, and performances, all in the name of school spirit.

Saturday morning I helped out with Trick or Treat Street, a daytime event for children to enjoy on Halloween with games, food, and fun. That night, I had a phenomenal time at the Spirit Lounge, which is an open mic event for a Christian community. There was standing room only and an abundance of talent. I am very much looking forward to the next one.

This weekend will be lots of fun as well because it is homecoming. I don’t even know which events I will be attending because there are so many going on, but I will be sure to let you all know in my next post. Until then, relax, release, breathe.

And GO SPIDERS!!!

Amani

This past week has been ridiculously busy. All of the papers, exams, presentations, and such have combined for a perfect storm. It is a far cry from those simple worksheets that you had to bring home and complete in ten minutes from back in elementary school. Needless to say, I was more than ready to feel like a kid again. So, I was very glad that Halloween has arrived. I was always a clown for Halloween as a kid. Middle school and high school saw the celebration of Halloween become almost nonexistent for me. However, in college. Halloween is probably the biggest holiday of the year… at least that we celebrate together. Remember this for when you go to college. Halloween is HUGE!!! Everyone comes up with the craziest and funnest costumes and the entire campus celebrates…. for three consecutive nights.

I hadn’t put much thought into my costume, but two of my friends convinced me to join them as contestants on “Legends of the Hidden Temple”, which in case you don’t recall, is a fantastic game show from when I was a kid. We ordered the costume online and it arrived in time. For Halloween night, I threw a dance party for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. It was a pretty great event. I saw Calvin and Hobbes, Jack Sparrow, a Ghostbuster, and so many more. We also decided to do a service project for our campus and hand out free pancakes all night to the partygoers passing by our apartment dance party. We handed out over two hundred pancakes and it was a great success, despite the horrible rain. So, Halloween was a fun break, but now I am back to work with group projects galore and many other meetings and lectures to attend.

Making pancakes on Halloween

My suite on Halloween (Chris, Alex, myself, and Billy) 

Quote of the Week: “It had only one fault. It was kind of lousy.” -James Thurber
YouTube Video of the Week:

A clip from “Legends of the Hidden Temple”

Isn’t it great when school provides you with free pizza, to diversify from D-Hall food?

Then we had to actually get to work.

My mom would be soooooo proud of me!

And in case you didn’t meet Lilly yet:

Isn’t she a sweetheart?

I took the opportunity to take some photos with other IQS folks:

Part of the results of our effort:

In the end, we enjoyed a live concert of Rachael and Dr. Lawson:

The next day, we actually ate the cupcakes in class. Of course, eventually, we convinced our chem teacher to not lecture, so we could focus on eating:

And in case you’re wondering how you write IQS in ASCII in binary:

On the other hand, last week has been the Environmental Awareness Week. GreenUR, one of the organizations I joined on campus, organized several cool events. Unfortunately, I ended up missing most of the events because I had an extremely busy week. To name just a few things that kept me busy, my first real Core paper, Core visit to Virginia State Capitol, and, of course, cupcake making!

But finally on Friday I was able to bring a contribution and set up a table outside the Common, where we gave away free organic chocolate.

And thanks to Alex, at some point GreenUR also offered some of the IQS cupcakes:

Because I had visited her before a few years ago, I had already done most of the touristy things in Aix, so we didn’t really find the need to do a lot. It was actually really nice taking a break from site-seeing for a while. I think it was what I needed. The first few days we didn’t do a lot–mainly just relaxed and spent time with her family catching up since we only get to see each other every few years. On Sunday I got to go with them to French church, which was nice, even if I didn’t understand everything. On Tuesday I went out to eat with Sarah for one of her friends’ birthday. It was really fun, even with the language barrier. Her friends were really nice and tried to talk to me in English. Wednesday to Thursday I went to Avignon, where I met up with my roommate and two other friends from Richmond:) We went to the Pope’s Palace, the Avignon cathedral, the Pont d’Avignon (the bridge), and a museum with ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. The city is SO beautiful and it was so good to see some of my friends from Richmond. It definitely made me excited to go back to Richmond and see everyone again:) On Friday, Sarah had classes so I spent the morning and afternoon with her parents. We hiked part of Saint Victoire, which is the famous mountain that the artist Paul Cezanne painted all the time. It was the perfect weather for a hike–not too cold and sunny:) Friday night, Sarah and I went out for sushi and then hung out with her boyfriend and watched a few movies.

I flew back to Rome on Saturday and spent the night there with my friends Lindsay and Alexandra. In general, my break was so much fun. It was great to get away and spend some time with family friends. It was almost like a “home away from home,” which was perfect for halfway through the semester. Now back to school…

Sarah and I at the airport

Saint Victoire, where I hiked

Me and my Richmond roommate, Martha, at the Port of Marseille

Getting those applications ready? Remember, if you want to apply early decision to UR, the fall deadline is November 15 (only a couple weeks away!) and the winter deadline is January 15. Also, if you wish to be considered by the Richmond Scholars Program, the deadline is December 15. I encourage you all to try to meet this deadline because you should never pass up an opportunity to be considered for a large sum of scholarship money if you can help it. I am personally a Richmond Scholar with an Oliver Hill designation, and I think it is great that I don’t really have to worry about paying for college because my tuition is taken care of through my scholarship. For more information about the UR admission timeline, visit http://admissions.richmond.edu/application/timeline.html

In other news…

I have had a wonderfully relaxing week! I think it is very necessary to de-stress when you can, and since I had two weeks full of stress, I used this entire one to rest and recuperate. Don’t worry—I haven’t shirked any of my academic or extra-curricular responsibilities. I had a very light workload this week, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Monday evening I went out with a couple friends to the Byrd Theater (which only costs $2!) to see The Time Traveler’s Wife, and I really liked it. Tuesday, my godmother was in Richmond, so I took her to a poetry reading on campus (since it was mandatory for me to attend anyway), and then we ate dinner at The Cellar, which is UR’s on-campus restaurant. We both had a great time for the few hours that we had together. Wednesday afternoon I took one of my friends downtown to get a haircut, and I spent a little time walking around the city, then my best friend and I went to her room to watch Save the Last Dance, which is always fun. Thursday consisted of volunteering for a couple hours at Bon Air Elementary with an ESL student as well as Ngoma practice, both of which I always eagerly anticipate.

Today will be great, too, because I get to register for classes for next semester (which is a competitive race in itself), and tonight Ngoma is having our bonding activity, which will be dinner and games at a few of the girls’ apartment. Tomorrow is the Spirit Lounge, and I am very much looking forward to it because last semester it was an amazing exhibition of talent in an open mic setting and Christian environment.

Looks like this week will be hard to beat. I really think it might be the most enjoyable week I’ve had all semester. I’m just trying to enjoy the down time while I can, because it most assuredly will not last forever.

I hope you all are making time for relaxation and fun as well in between all of your college preparation! 

Later…

Amani

Instead of going to bed at 3 a.m. and waking up just in time to make it to class, I’ve started to go to bed earlier to give myself a more relaxing morning with breakfast that’s not rushed. I actually had time enough to go to D-Hall instead of Tyler’s Grill for breakfast, which astounded even myself. With a little more sleep, I’ve gotten rid of the caffeine and replaced it with healthy choices: the contents of my fridge have gone from Red Bull to grapefruit juice. Seems like one healthy decision led to another, and I’m enjoying the prospect of this formula, especially considering that as the years progress, my schedule is going to get all the busier.

I recall my tight high school schedule and how my busyness and multiple responsibilities gave me the incentive to be diligent. In high school, I knew I was responsible for being on time for basketball practices, for making it to student government meetings, for practicing for jazz band every day. Here, the responsibilities are more to myself and perhaps that’s why I’ve allowed myself to slip. Without someone to be on time for, to be well-rested for, to be well-rehearsed for, I started taking it easy. I guess it truly is hard when you have to be your own coach.

The good news is that being your own coach truly prepares you in a way that no class can for becoming your own independent person. So my advice to my peers: be your own trainer and work off those different freshman 15’s of college! By getting rid of the unhealthy habits you will make room for so much more! Take the Freshman 15 on your stomach and turn it into the Freshman 6-pack!

Well, those are my thoughts for now. Gotta go make some smart decisions!

-Shohsei

So, this week has been super busy for me. It was meetings after meetings after meetings upon classes after classes after classes. However, organizations that I’m involved with took up just as much time. So, I don’t have too much to convey to you from this past week except that academics kept me quite busy. As Events Coordinator for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, I just realized I am working on four events occurring within a ten-day span. That’s a lot of planning and work. There was a tailgate, Medallion Hunt, Housekeeper’s Appreciation Brunch, and a Halloween party. So, I haven’t had much free time. In fact, it is now Sunday evening and I have yet to touch my homework since Thursday, which is incredibly rare for me. So, what have I been doing since Thursday?

I put together a tailgate for one of my groups and decided to expand it to several other groups on-campus. We partnered together and had a great time. But, it required days of planning, prepping, cooking, and cleaning before the event was over. The weather was not pleasant almost all weekend, but it held off for our tailgate. Our head chef, whose dad is a tailgating enthusiast and has his own website for tailgating, did a great job. She (yes, I said she), manned those grills like none other while my friend and I (yes, both of us are guys) stood by clueless with the grills. How’s that for breaking stereotypes? Oh yeah, the football team won in the pouring rain later that day to remain undefeated and #1 in the Football Championship Series.

The three planners of the tailgate

Also this weekend was a sorority social that I was invited to. The theme was “Throwdown for Your Hometown”. So, I represented the great state of Wisconsin. I found some overalls, a Wisconsin t-shirt, and cut out some cheese slices. My parents actually shipped a cheesehead from home, but it didn’t arrive in time. It was held at a downtown club called “Element” that we reserved and I think everyone had a great time. I know I did.

Representing our respective hometowns

Quote of the Week: “Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” -Don Marquis
YouTube Video of the Week:

Ouch

Since it was already 6:30pm, and the show was scheduled to begin at 7:30, I hurried to the dining hall in order to get some food before sitting through the event that would hopefully improve my Thursday night. I met my girlfriend outside of her dorm and she gave me my ticket, which looked something like this:

The show was possible thanks to the effort of The Modlin Center for the Arts here at UR, and they’re constantly looking for artists that they can bring to campus. Before, I’ve seen Second City and Rockapella, both of which were very good, so I was excited bout this show as well.

When we got there, it was already a little late and the place was packed. It took place at the Alice Jepson Theatre, which is really big considering it has a balcony and all, but there were almost no seats left. I was extremely surprised by this, because I had never heard about Circo Aereo before, and they were having a show the next day too, so I wasn’t expecting to find that many people there.

Contrary to what happened at the Craig Karges show, I was decided to take pictures of the performance. I even had my camera ready, when I heard a deep voice through the speakers: “Out of respect to the artists, and in order to make sure the show isn’t disturbed in any way or fashion, please refrain from taking pictures or recording any part of this performance.”

I was definitely out of luck, and even more so after the show began. Most of their acts were really impressive, and though there were some parts I couldn’t understand at all, I just accounted that to the fact they’re foreign. Not to sound stereotypical or anything, it’s just that I’m sure they have a different perspective of what is considered artistic. I even stayed after the show for a Q&A session with them, and they seemed really nice people, haha. Still, they admitted that the styles are way different than what you would find here in the US. It also turns out they’re actually really famous, especially in Europe, and their performances are frequently requested, so I was happy I got to see them, and realized I’m extremely lucky to be at a place like UR, where we constantly get artists from all around the world to show us what they’re capable of doing. And even though there were some parts of the show that I couldn’t completely understand, the two hours went by fairly quickly, and I was able to say, at the end of the show, that my Thursday night had indeed improved.

This past Saturday was the Relay for Life! When I came on campus, I was ecstatic enough to discover that the university was involved in the Relay, and I immediately signed up to go to the first meeting. I thought it was a recruitment meeting, where the university would do their part to put together a couple of teams, and we would have a few fundraisers for a bigger Relay within the community.

That would have been fine.

But we completely outdid ourselves.

We weren’t contributing to a bigger Relay. We were making our own. To clarify, the Relay for Life is a huge fundraising event for the American Cancer Society. Teams of cancer survivors, patients, caregivers, and supporters take turns walking around a track for 12 hours, raising money for cancer research and other programs that help patients in their fight. These events take place across the country. I showed up to the first meeting, expecting that I would be given a captain’s packet and instructed on how to create a team. Instead, I was given dozens of packets to fill and distribute, as well as a list of teams from last year to advise. I wasn’t just a team captain. I was a Committee Member.

In just six weeks, we asked for sponsorships, created teams, ran fundraisers, organized events, and tried our best to keep track of everything, leaving us breathless at 9AM on the day of the Relay. We looked outside our windows. It was raining.

Of course, our original plan was to have the Relay around Westhampton Lake, which would have been gorgeous while allowing us to get passersby involved. But rather than having team members, already reluctant to sacrifice a Saturday, walk outside in the 49-degree rain, we moved our event indoors. The decision was definitely appreciated.

And what success! The track was busy with relayers from 11 to 11 and there was face painting, relay races, limbo, and tons of food. I even managed to sell quite a few pairs of earrings that I had made this past summer for my Relay in Delaware. I spent hours folding wire into loops of ribbon, then hammering them into copper sheets, so it was great to see that my efforts mattered in some small way.

Oh! And this is my favorite part. Ever since the four a-cappella groups on campus performed in the Greek Amphitheater, I have been obsessed… in a strictly non-creepy sense. It’s just so exciting to see your classmates standing in front of a crowd, doing a cover of a song that you sing all the time! Off The Cuff (the newest group on campus), Choeur du Roi, Sirens (all female), and The Octaves (all male) performed one after the other. And although I missed half of the show because I was setting up bags of candles for a ceremony later that evening, I absolutely caught the second half. On tape.

Unfortunately, as of now, my computer is refusing to let me post my video of the Octaves, but I’d really like to get this article up. So, here are some pictures and I hope I can get the clips up soon!

Off the Cuff

The Octaves

How does one pass up the serenade of a group of handsome teenage boys? You tell me. I wouldn’t know. : )

Luminaria Ceremony: We lit candles in luminaria bags in the shape of “HOPE”. The camera caught the water droplets in the air, which disappointed me, but my fellow Relayers think it’s a cool picture.

All in all, I think it was a great achievement. I’ve been to many a Relay, practicing up my fundraising skills around my neighborhood at the age of seven, and helping my friend Martha with her team whenever I could, so I know a great Relay when I see one. But aside from tradition’s sake, the Relay has been important to me in the past couple of years because of my Mom’s fight with cancer. Being part of a team is one thing, but helping in the organization of an entire event is quite another. When someone you love has cancer, it’s easy to feel helpless, but being a part of the Committee this year made me feel empowered. We’ve raised $24,000. Fundraising doesn’t even stop until second semester. And I did something to contribute. That’s awesome.

Later,

Katie

I didn’t go away this past weekend because of midterms, and it was perfect timing because the Eurochocolate Festival in Perugia started:) Every year Perugia hosts a famous chocolate festival in the city center. Tons of tents are set up with different kinds of European chocolate. You can walk around and sample different kinds of chocolate, drink hot chocolate (which is good because it’s FREEZING here now), eat Nutella crepes, and even go on different rides. Julia (my Richmond friend studying abroad in Rome that I went to Turkey with) came to visit for the festival, so I got to hang out with her Saturday. It was strange having so many people in Perugia! It’s a really small city and people come from all over Europe for this festival, so it was a little overwhelming!

Now that midterms are over, we have our fall break for 10 days, which I’m super excited about!! I’m going to visit my friend that lives in southern France:) I think it’s going to be a great time to relax halfway through the semester.

Here are some pictures from the Eurochocolate Festival:

Julia and I at the chocolate festival:)

My friends and I huddled together on the lawn in front of my dorm, shivering from the dewey cold, or perhaps just shaking in anticipation. We knew what was going to happen. We were just some of the few brave souls who wanted to bear witness. It was going to be epic.

Actually, it was a meteor shower. But don’t let the absence of apocalypse make you think it was any less exciting. We all woke up at 5:00AM, a rare feat for any college student, and stumbled out of our dorm rooms in varying moods. There were blankets and cookies and goldfish to keep us warm and occupied as we waited for the show to start, but perhaps the best form of entertainment was our own exhaustion. Having gone to bed only three hours before, our systems were kaput, but our senses of humor were absolutely out of control. We simply could not stop giggling, so at 5:30, when my friend Nate exclaimed that he had seen the first one, none of us believed him. We were too busy laughing, squeezing our eyes shut to keep the tears in, while Nate enjoyed the feature presentation. Luckily, after a few minutes of disbelief, we opened our eyes.

Some of them were huge streaks, scratching holes in the sky as they skidded in front of us. Others moved more slowly, changing direction and allowing you to follow their paths. It was fun finding them. The dramatic ones that looked like pieces of heaven had us yelping in surprise every time one crossed our line of sight, and airplanes were always met with a gasp followed by a “dangit!”. At 6:30 all of us were frozen to the bone and the cookies were gone, so we decided to turn in and steal an hour or two of sleep before heading to class.

It’s funny when you wake up in the middle of the night to do something, then go back to sleep. Your brain doesn’t register that everything happened in the same day. Sleep acts as a sort of book end, telling us how to separate out our day to day lives, so when you mess with a book end, things tend to get confusing. Before class, we all met for breakfast, bleary-eyed and disbelieving. Did that really just happen? We didn’t dream that, right? Our meteor shower didn’t take place in some time warp never to be understood. We just went back to bed. I had difficulty recovering from that one. In Logic class, I was convinced it was Friday.

I apologize for the lack of pictures. I tried, but failed miserably in the pitch darkness. Your imaginations will have to do the trick!

Later,

Katie

My life at this school has been so busy! Midterms and papers have been swallowing up my free time and social life. I’ve been stressed out, and I’m pretty sure that the sentiment is resounding across campus.

The unfortunate events began about a week and a half ago when my teacher posted sources for our term paper due today. As nice as it would have been to get started on that paper then, I couldn’t because I had a midterm in the class due on the Monday of Fall Break. Yeah, I know…why would he do that to us? So much for having a break. Mind you, the midterm was a paper.

Ok, so after that paper consumed my entire Fall Break last weekend, I had to turn around and get started on my term paper that was due today—6-10 pages on pretty much the stuff covered in the midterm. The point of it all? Who knows. But I can tell you all that I struggled.

I had been highly upset that my teacher would do such a thing as have such a weighty assignment due over our supposed break period, but I was even more disillusioned with this particular professor when I spent my entire past weekend working on this term paper. Two weekends in a row gone to two papers which both count for large portions of my final grade.

I have never had much trouble writing papers at all, but considering the amount of mental exertion I’ve had to endure with these assignments on top of all of my other classes, I did indeed struggle for the term paper. Every day I sat on my laptop and tried and tried to work toward my goals, but never quite accomplished them.

It was not until today at 4:45 p.m. that I finished and finally submitted this term paper. Currently to show for my effort, I have a piercing headache and bags under my eyes. Hopefully, however, all of my toiling will pay off with a rewarding grade.

We can only hope.

Best wishes to you in all of your current academic endeavors! Perseverance is key!

Amani

I had gone to dance class, expecting something different from the usual. Circo Aereo, a European circus company, is here on campus, and will be performing two shows in the Modlin Center over the next couple of days. The director of the University Dancers, Myra Daleng, had told us earlier that we should come to class in casual clothes because we would be having a circus workshop. Being dancers, we were all naturally ecstatic, expecting to learn simple circus tricks that somehow connected to what we did best: dance.

The two Circo Aereo company members walked in. They weren’t wearing dance clothing and they were carrying two boxes. When Myra introduced them as the company members who were going to teach a circus workshop, they corrected her. Juggling workshop. No way.

Before we could look at each other in giddy astonishment, we were split into two groups and the boxes were opened, revealing bean bag balls that we would be tossing around for the next hour and forty-five minutes. First, our group learned how to juggle from a rhythmic perspective. We counted in threes and fours and fives, slowly changing hands and adding balls. Things were going smoothly. I have never been one to deal with flying objects gracefully. As a kid, I ran away from soccer balls and held my tennis racket in front of my face. Dance was a wonderful discovery for me because I was the only thing in the air. But half way into that workshop, I felt like I could catch a rogue soap bar in the shower. What confidence I had!

That is, until we added a third ball. At that point, things went haywire. I still can’t figure out when I should make the third throw, because by the time I decide, I’ve caught two balls in one hand and they both go flying. Hopefully I’ll be able to work it out, though. I’d hate to lose my new found catching ability.

In the second group, we learned how to think about juggling from a more physical perspective. We walked around and wiggled our fingers between throws, testing exactly how distracted you can get with other movements while throwing balls back and forth. All the while trying not to drop anything. It was great fun : )

An action photo!

Seven balls. Our instructors were incredible.

This isn’t the first time that we have had a guest company come in to teach a University Dancer class. A few weeks ago, a contact improvisation company called Pilobolus taught a class based in movements with a partner. We did counterbalance and “perching” exercises (essentially when you stack people making different shapes with their bodies), learning how to rely on physical communication with a partner rather than visual cues in order to make decisions in movement. All of my friends came out of the Pilobolus performance brimming with awe at how incredibly strong and talented the dancers were. I smiled to myself and said “Hey, they taught my dance class.”

How cool is that?

Later,

Katie

Last week was officially my shortest week of classes because Monday and Tuesday were off for Fall Break. Three days of classes doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Oh ho ho, how wrong you are. Coming back from break, I had a midterm exam on Wednesday, a midterm and a paper due on Thursday, and a field trip on Friday that clashed with my Philosophy class which gave me a lot of make up work. What’s more, my midterms were for my morning classes! It was the longest short week of my life.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been so bad if I had spent the last two days of my fall break studying (as I should have), but instead I spent that time drifting in and out of this wonderful something I like to call “sleep.” Of course my procrastinating led to an intense five hour paper-writing haul on Tuesday afternoon (as I had not started my paper which was due in two days), but I can only blame myself for that. And I’ll also admit that the field trip wasn’t exactly the worst end to the week, as we got to visit the Virginia State Capitol, and as an architecturally-appreciative person (is that even a word?), I enjoyed looking at the building whose original designs belonged to the one and only Thomas Jefferson. I guess I should stop feeling sorry for myself.

But I won’t. One more thing: sadly for me, I did not return home for fall break as four days to fly across to the other side of the world, visit, and fly all the way back did not seem worth it. Hearing my friends’ stories of being back home made me all the more ready for winter break to come around. I’m halfway there.

Speaking of home, the other day I met a Japanese girl on campus who went to a school in Japan that my school’s basketball team had played against countless times throughout the years! Coincidentally, I was wearing a T-shirt made for my school’s annual Snow Festival Classic - a basketball tournament where we play other international teams as well as Japanese schools, and of course listed on the back of my shirt was her school! I asked her if she knew any of the players who I had faced off with on court, but unfortunately, as she had graduated much earlier than I did, she did not know the people I was talking about. Still, talk about a small world experience.

Well, I just realized that my morning is quickly transforming into noontime, which means I need to finish up my homework for my afternoon class! So I leave you with a blog full of self-pity. Catch you guys later,

-Shohsei

At first I didn’t think anything of it. It started as one simple incident that didn’t seem too sinister. But I now look back at it and realize that that one event was the Battle of Fort Sumter for the Civil War, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand for World War I. I began as an innocent bystander, but I have now been forced to enter into the thick of it. For, you see, my suite is at war. Don’t get me wrong, we are great friends and get along quite well, but we are in the midst of a Prank War.

There are four of us who live in the suite, two in each room, and we are connected by a bathroom. One day several weeks ago, an orange traffic cone magically appeared in the middle of my room. My roommate and I laughed about it for a few minutes, realizing that it was our one suitemate who did it, but then another traffic cone appeared in our room the next day. Another strange incident, but nothing too sinister. However, it then escalated quickly. The next day, a friend’s bicycle appeared in the middle of our room. At this point, my roommate and I knew we had to have a laugh ourselves. So, we kindly returned the two traffic cones to our suitemate’s room by hiding them in his bed. Little did we know that this was viewed as retaliation.

So, he responded by hiding the cones in our fridge and our dresser drawers. Several days later, he covered every square inch of our room in newspapers. We responded by taping “Caution Tape” all around his room, which provoked him to stuff our refrigerator with packing peanuts. I had stayed out of it for the most part thus far, but I now had to get involved. So, while he was gone for this weekend, we stuck hundreds of Post-It notes all over his entire room. Now, we must wait to see what his response will be. Below shows the progression of our pranks.

The original cones and the bike.

Newspapers covering the room

Packing peanuts in the fridge

Payback

Quote of the Day: “A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top.” -Anonymous
YouTube Video of the Week:

In case you wanted to be educated 

My fall break wasn’t so exciting. I didn’t leave campus except for Ukrops and bowling. I spent half of the break sleeping (by the way, high school students, sleep whenever you have the opportunity. Such opportunities are extremely scarce in college!) and a good portion of the remaining time working.

“What? Working in fall break?” Yes, but it wasn’t homework. It was actual work. I definitely did not plan on working my first semester in college, to give me some time to adjust to everything. But a job sort of knocked on my door. There is a Political Science professor who does some research about steel industry in Romania, and she needed a Romanian speaker to look up articles in Romanian. So guess how many people on campus know Romanian! Not many, and all the others already had one or several jobs. It isn’t a big time commitment anyway, so I said to give it a try.

The problem was that I didn’t have time so far to actually do something. I had to do everything by the week after fall break, so I needed to do as much as possible while I had some free time. I was happy that my knowledge of Romanian actually served for something. Lesson to learn: whatever unusual and unique skill you have can come in handy sometimes.

On Sunday evening, Edderic’s family took me and 2 other girls, Cen and Sunny, to bowling. I’ve never bowled before, and I was sooooooooo terrible at that. I had no idea how to throw a bowl, despite Edderic’s long explanations. I usually scored a big 0. But I still had an incredible great time.

The only exception was when a bowl remained in the middle of the track and I went to pick it up, but I stepped on the slippery part and I fell really, really badly. For a few moments I wasn’t even able to move. Then I was ok, but I was in a big pain. Actually, I can still feel it. On top of everything, when we returned to campus, we decided to throw a small party, but I couldn’t dance properly because whenever I was bending down it hurt a lot.

Now school began again. I am back to my old routine full of exams and lacking sleep.

Since the beginning of my freshmen year, I developed really good friendships with people in my leadership class, because we were all in a program called Spinning Your Web and got to live in the same floor. Most of them are still acquaintances, but only some of them are still close friends. If you’ve read posts from last year, you know one of my best friends, if not the best, I met thanks to that program.

My first interaction with his family was when I went home with him for Thanksgiving. Since there was no way I could go home, and there was no way I could stay on campus either, I ended up going to Baltimore, Maryland for the break. I had an amazing time there and all the family members really liked me. Unfortunately, after Thanksgiving break I didn’t have any other chances to see them.

For that reason, when my friend told me his family was coming over for the weekend, I was excited to see them. I spent Friday with my girlfriend’s parents and on Saturday I had lunch with my friend, his brother and his parents. We went to Carytown Burgers (a place you must definitely check out as soon as you’re in Richmond) and ended up staying there for over two hours, just chilling and catching up.

After that, we got back to campus and my friend wanted to show them his room, so we were all hanging out there, joking around and being silly. They really made me feel extremely comfortable over Thanksgiving that one time, and that didn’t change, so I was happy I was able to spend some time with them.

The relationship is so good, that they kept asking me when they would see me again, joking that since I got a girlfriend, I don’t have any time left for them. And, since I’ll be spending Thanksgiving break this year with my girlfriend and her family, the option of Winter break came up. Tickets to Peru are way too expensive during that time of the year, and I would only be staying for a couple of weeks, so I decided it wasn’t worth going back.

Consequently, I’ll be spending Christmas and New Year’s with my best friend and his family! I’m extremely excited about that, and I even have a couple of gifts for them already

I’m looking forward to the break, not only because it’ll mean that I won’t have any work to do for three weeks or so, but also because I know I’ll have a great time, and I’ll still be spending Christmas with people who I can considered my family =).

What’s poppin’, readerz? Here at Richmond we have this Fall Break jazz where we get a four day weekend off in October, which is great. As soon as people started to brandish out the pumpkins and costume ideas, my mom calls, asking when she should buy my plane ticket to come home for my mini-vacation. My answer:

“Never.”

Stumped, Mom proceeded to ask why after a beat. I told her that the Chords had something special planned for Fall Break, and going home would bar me from experiencing what I would find to be the most fun event of college yet. Choeur Du Roi (or Chords for short) is the campus’s first co-ed a capella group, in which I was one of 3 new members. It took me a while to get over being selected, ‘twas a great feeling, let me tell ya! Well a couple weeks in of spitting notes left and right, a couple of little concerts here and there, we have one of the main annual events of Chords life:

TOUR DU ROI!

Just the name sounds cool. The idea behind Tour Du Roi is that we as a crew travel up the east coast and sing it up with other university a capella groups over the course of fall break (which is pretty much Columbus Day weekend + Tuesday). Friday we set off.

TOUR DU ROI: DAY I

So I’m chillin’ in my Calc class, and the only function I’m deriving is how long is this gonna take. Calculus is my last class of the day on Fridays, ending at 3:50. It’s not that I have anything against Calc in particular, I’d be staring at the clock in any class. Unfortunately, in the Calc room the clock was busted, never budging from 11:27, for a while I was very confused by this, but the my phone cleared it all up. TICK, TOCK, TICK, TOCK… my cell phone was taunting me, to the point where I’d start creating clock noises in my head for it. It was 3:49 for I swear like 3 hours and then finally. 3:50. I darted out of that room like a dart to a board: fast. From the classroom to the back seat of a car in approx. 7 seconds. We sped off, leaving the spidery campus behind, never to see again… for a couple days.

Now usually cars have four wheels but in this case, I served as one of them. The Third Wheel. Elliot, the Chords VP (short for Vocal Precussion…that took me the longest time to figure out. I swear they were saying BB as in Beat Boxer, but the more and more they said it, the more “BB” doubts I was having.) was in the drivers and his girlfriend was in passenger. Otherwise, I had the back row. And that was it. Now normally whats to follow is a strange silence of unsureness of what to say, more commonly known as…. Awkwardness. But low and behold, it never became awkward! It’s such a dumb word… things usually become awkward the moment the word awkward is said, and who decided having a K sandwiched in Ws is a normal thing to have for a word. The word itself sticks in general

Anywho, it was off to DC, home of the free and land of the brave, baby!! On the way in we saw some important towers dedicated to some old dead important dudes, and Elliot, being from VA, decided that we should not highway it up, as Interstates usually crowd up rather quickly. Sounded good to me. So we sped along this strange sideroad-esque kind of thing for several hours. We chatted it up, the three of us, Elliot, Meredith, and I, and life was good, until tummies started to rumble. Every billboard looked appetizing… McDonalds, Roy Rodgers, KFC, I was even willing to settle for gas station snackery until a miracle occurred.

Arby’s.

Now I had never been to Arby’s before. IF you are an Arby’s virgin like I was, I suggest hopping on the road wherever you are and chowing down on a scrumptious Bacon Cheese Roastburger… complete with a crispy layer of lettuce and topped off with a soft buttery bund, drizzled in sesame seeds… It was truly like taking a bite out of Jesus: Godly tasting.

So post-Arby’s we eventually made it to Georgetown, our first musical stop of many, and sang with this all dudes group, the Chimes. They specialized in good ol’ a capella, if ya know what I mean. Barbershop stuff (don’t ask me where the name came from… my hair cutter back home didn’t have an angelic tongue and I don’t think spitting scales its required for the job but…nevermind). These guys were good. We changed up the performance by throwing in some modern stuff, like What Goes Around Comes Around and One Step at a Time. The concert was an ultimate success; fans were hootin’ and hollerin’ all the way from the top stair of the 5 step staircase we were singing in front of.

TOUR DU ROI: DAY II

From Georgetown we decided to sleep in Chords Alum Garrett Something’s house. His house. Like this guy was in college maybe a year or two ago… and now he has a house and a job… its like he was an adult, which was true. ME, just turning 18 in July, was surprised… This is what comes after college: bills. It was an odd thought that I drowned out quickly when we made our way to the DC Zoo the next morning. Pandas were chompin’ down bamboo staves and monkeys were screechin’. It was a lovely time.

Waving good by to our alumnotic friend, we left the zoo and before heading to the next school (Johns Hopkins) I saw this little stand chillin’ right outside the zoo. IT was a lady with a slight over bite, a tattered visor, and a well grown in ‘stache. She was standing affront a table full of zooish goodies, such as hats and shirt and… STUFFED PANDAS! Next to said pandas was a small paper that said $8 each, but I had a plan. My wallet consisted of my safety 5 (ya know, the one you keep under the flaps of your wallet for emergency use) and one 20 that I had no desire to break just cuz its cool to have a twenty around, ya know? So there I was, lusting for that plush bear, when I summoned a swell idea.

“Say, miss. How much is one of those pandas?” That was me, playing it cool like I didn’t see the price tag.
“8 dollaz fer a panda,” She woofed.
“What if I said I had 5 dollars on me, right now. Is five bucks good?”
She got real close to me when she said this, and in her bone-chilling raspy voice she mumbled: “You got 7 dollaz?”
“…uhhh… nope! Just this 5 I mentioned.”
“Don’t tell anyone but…” Yes, success baby, I could tell just by the tone of her voice. “You can have the panda for 5 dollaz.”
“SWEET! Here ya go!” My safety five was now in for bigger and better things, and I now had this sweet panda.

So, lemme tell you something. Since this is the longest post I’ve had up to date, I decided form here on out I will use bullet form to sum up the rest of the adventure. Don’t worry, it will tell the entire tale, it just won’t be full of my pointless side quests.

• Johns Hopkins, we sang with this group the Vocal Chords.
• Loved it.
• We stayed in this apartment that night with random ppl we had never met from the school.
• I learned that Baltimore fails in comparison to any other place I’ve been…ever. (Sorry Baltimorians! =] )
• April almost got shanked.

TOUR DU ROI: DAY III

• We saw a dragon.
• Drove up to NYU, sang with the N’Harmonics who were crazy good and really loud.
• Had dinner with the crew.
• Elliot and I got a ride back to my house (I’m from Westchester, right outside the city)
• I bought 3 bananas for $1 on the way (best fruitacious deal I’ve ever seen)
• Slept, ate, drank, breathed, showered.
• Elliot left and I stayed home the next day. Flew into Richmond on Tuesday
• Continued School as usual.
• Typed this up!

Warm Regards,

Nick Candido
nick.diary@richmond.edu

Post Scriptum. I apologize for not having any pics of the zoo… that was a mistake that will haunt me til my elderly days.

Although my friends and I had known that we’d wanted to go to D.C. for a long time, as the procrastinators that we really are, we even put off vacation planning until Friday night rolled by and we still hadn’t booked any hotels or planned our trip. Freaking out a little bit, we did what all procrastinators do when they realize that the deadline is nigh: we put it off until even later! We drove to Cary Town for food and had to walk the streets for ages until we found a restaurant that was still open and affordable. After a long and enjoyable meal, we drove back and did anything but make any plans until at 1 o’clock in the morning we all put our collective foot down and decided that someone would have to log onto Expedia. And as is the case with most procrastinating, we discovered that once we started, the rest was easy; just like how once you get your introductory paragraph down, the rest of the paper comes easier than you imagined - it’s just a matter of starting.

So we finally made hotel reservations and decided that we would wake up ridiculously early in the morning so that we could get a jump start on our first day in Washington. Of course we all ended up waking up around noon… but at D-Hall while we munched on breakfast/lunch cereal, four of our other friends decided they wanted to come to D.C. with us, too. So what was originally a trip for five people became a trip for nine, and they quickly made reservations at the same hotel and got packed. We ended up leaving around 2 p.m. So much for “early start.”

But the trip was awesome - after checking in at our hotel we drove back downtown where a beautiful evening sky greeted us, creating the perfect backdrop for our night tour of the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the National Mall, and China Town. Considering that we hadn’t planned out our visits, we had a very successful night. In fact, our lack of planning was directly responsible for allowing us to see the President of the United States: that’s right, as we loitered on a street corner near the White House debating where to go for dinner, we saw a motorcade roll in and we realized that Barack Obama was returning home from dinner himself. I even saw Obama through the tinted glass windows of the car, as he acknowledged the handful of onlookers on the corner (sorry, no picture!) Not bad for not planning anything, right?

Saturday evening 

The whole (happy) gang 

Once we finally found a place to eat we joyrode through the city until we decided that we should get back to our hotel so that this time we’d actually go to bed early to prepare for an early morning… wrong again. We all ended up in bed about 4:30 a.m. and got up around 10: a better start than Saturday morning (or afternoon, rather), but not exactly what we had in mind. After grabbing breakfast at a pancake house, we spent Sunday at the Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and appreciating the aesthetic pleasures of the Capitol and the Jefferson Memorial as we revisited the National Mall.

At Arlington National Cemetery, JFK’s tombstone 

Lincoln, the man himself in his throne 

A shot of the Jefferson Memorial from across the water

The Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian

The Capitol! Notice the autumn colours… fall break indeed

Silhouette of the Washington Monument

We returned home (yes, it was weird how much campus already felt like home upon driving up to X-Lot) around 2 a.m. (see a common theme here?) and met up with other friends to tell them of our adventures… and here I am, with my D.C. trip behind me and two midterms ahead. Do I feel ready? No. Do I feel readier than I would if I hadn’t gotten to enjoy two days with eight good friends in our nation’s capital? Yes. Here comes the second half of my first semester of college.

-Shohsei

It took me completely by surprise, I had totally forgot about it until a friend of mine reminded me on Saturday. Thank God I had my white dress prepared!

We first took a class picture…which was HUGE! If you wonder how our huge class was able to fit in a single photo, well… I don’t know! It took more than half an hour to organize the setting. They tried to arrange us in as many rows as they could, sitting on chairs, or on the grass, or standing on benches (I was standing on a bench) and apparently they managed to fit us all eventually.

Then we went to the D-Hall, and we had to wait 15 minutes in line! The entire Westhampton class was eating in the same time in the same place! Of all the things in the world, waiting is the one I hate most! But there was nothing I could do about it!

The ceremony itself was quite interesting; it was the first time in my life when I saw so many women in a single place! I enjoyed the letters that the seniors read aloud; I didn’t consider that there was anything embarrassing inside their letters, but just in case I become a totally different person in 3 years and I radically change my life beliefs, I wrote my letter in Romanian. Sono matter what, not many people will be able to understand my letter

Now the photo part, that my friend Simrun is anxiously waiting nearby…

Right now I’m on my way back from my first weekend in Florence! My friends and I planned the trip with the goal of seeing as many art-related sites as possible. We arrived Friday afternoon, ate lunch at a great seafood restaurant, and then headed straight to the Uffizi Gallery, where we waited in line for about an hour. I think my two favorite paintings I got to see were Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and Fra Fillippo Lippi’s “Madonna and Child with Two Angels.” I also got to see some of Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings that I studied in my art history class, but I didn’t want to spend too much time in that room since my class is taking a special trip there to see them. After the Uffizi, we went to the Duomo Museum, where they have several of the original panels from Ghiberti’s “Gates of Paradise.”

On Saturday, we got an early start and headed straight to the Accademia to see Michelangelo’s “David.” This was probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend. I had studied the statue so many times in class, but nothing compares to actually seeing it in real life! Afterwards, we went to the Brancacci Chapel and saw Masaccio’s famous fresco, “Tribute Money,” and then we went to see Galileo and Michelangelo’s tombs in the Santa Croce Church. Saturday night, a friend of Lindsay’s had us over for a home-cooked meal. He’s in Florence studying jewelry-making and offered to cook for us when he heard we going to be in the area. It was a lot of fun and we were so grateful that he invited us over when he didn’t even know us that well.

Today we got another early start and went to the Bargello, where both Donatello and Verrocchio’s bronze “David” statues are housed. After that we went to the Duomo to see Brunelleschi’s famous dome, the baptistery, and Giotto’s Tower (we climbed 414 steps to the top!). We ended our trip with seeing the frescoes in the Museum of San Marco, and then hopped on the train. It was such a great weekend, and I have to say that Florence is probably one of my favorite places I’ve been so far since I’ve been here. It rained all of Friday and Saturday, but we were still able to enjoy being outside in the beautiful city. I think it was a great idea to go this weekend, because now we’re going to be in Perugia for the next few weeks because of midterms and the Euro Chocolate festival!

The Duomo

Masaccio’s “Tribute Money”

Santa Croce Church

Or can you? Our original plan of driving down to Jimmy John’s to pick up some food became an adventure through Carytown and downtown Richmond to blow off steam. What a great time, though - I had so much fun driving my friend’s convertible through the lighted city streets and the dark woods, blasting loud party music the whole time with the top down. In hindsight, we probably upset some sleeping neighbors… but I cannot overstate just how much fun it was - the spontaneity and the adrenaline of the wind blowing on your face at 85 65 mph on the highway (is that the speed limit in Virginia?!) truly obliterated the stress of thinking about midterms.

Carytown at 3 a.m.

Me, happy.

We even made it all the way down to VCU

We got back around 5 a.m., just in time for me to catch three hours of sleep before my three hour physics class and lab. It was definitely worth it, though. Sometimes it’s worth being tired for an entire day if you get in a couple of hours when you can really just enjoy living… Speaking of, now I have to start planning for my trip to D.C. for fall break. Haha, I know it seems like I don’t actually do any work, but this is simply not true! See you guys after break!

 -Shohsei

Fortunately, my girlfriend’s parents were also coming down, and I’ve developed a pretty good relationship with them, to the point where they always ask me to join them for dinner or other events. They arrived on campus at around 5pm, and announced they had tickets for Craig Karges, a really cool mentalist they had seen the previous year.

They told me how amazing he was, but I’ve always been the type of person who has to see in order to believe, so we went to get dinner off campus and made sure we would be back on time for the show.

And with on time I actually meant half an hour early. We got AMAZING seats, almost right in front of the stage. And I was debating whether I should take out my camera or not. First of all, I wasn’t really sure if I would be allowed to take pictures or record a part of the presentation, I figured that wouldn’t be too good for him. Second, I was way too close to the stage, so he would probably see me taking the pictures (assuming I would’ve done it without being allowed to). But, most importantly, even if he hadn’t seen me taking the pictures, he would’ve still known just from picking up random brain waves, right?

Right…

So, I didn’t take any pictures of the show itself. But I did manage to take pictures of what they gave us at the show (after the show was over, of course!)

I don’t know if you can tell, cus I had to zoom the hell out of that thing, but the table isn’t touching the floor! It is therefore what I would like to call: a flying chair. Before his trick, he showed us how he had no possible way of holding the table. And, being right in front of him, I could see only his finger tips were touching it. Plus, a random person from the audience was helping him, so there was no way he could’ve “cheated.”

Of course, he’s an illusionist, and what he does is a “show” for a reason. But damn, I wish I could put on a show like that!

The funniest part was when one of my friends was selected to help him with one of his acts. He gave her a marker and a whiteboard and put her hand, together with the board, inside a bag so that no one else could see what she was writing (not even herself). At the same time, he asked a random guy to identify a bunch of celebrities just from pictures. The guy was doing really well, until Craig showed him only a glimpse of one of the pictures. The guy thought it was Marilyn Monroe, but when looking over the pictures, she wasn’t in any of them. All throughout, my friend had been scribbling around on the board, just letting go and not knowing what it would be. When Craig pulled out the board, she had written MARILYN on it. Not content with that, he took a sealed envelope he had given to a little kid (which was empty before being sealed) and pulled out the picture of Marilyn Monroe. Talk about being creepy…

Or totally AWESOME! It was by far one of the best illusionist acts I’ve seen life, and I was definitely happy my girlfriend’s parents got me tickets for it, haha. Maybe next year I’ll go again, and I’ll try to take pictures this time!

After some last minute chaos in preparing to go to the concert, seven of my friends and I were on our way to what would be four amazing hours of slick guitar riffs, flashy stage spectacles, and a massive crowd jumping up and down. The ride over was already spirited due to the combination of multiple factors: we were running late and therefore antsy and worried we would miss the beginning of the show, the stereo system was blaring the music that we would be hearing live in a couple of hours, and hey, we were going to see two amazing bands: Muse and U2!

On our way to one of the best concerts of my life

When we arrived at 7:30 p.m. for the 7 o’clock concert and realized that Muse, the opener, hadn’t started playing yet, the whole experience became even more exciting because we knew for sure that we wouldn’t be missing any of the awesomeness that would occur in Scott Stadium on that night. Rushing through the gates, we flooded onto the field where we lucked out once again and got great spots in front of the middle of the stage and about only 20 meters out. Indeed, everything was working itself out and once the members of Muse walked onstage and kicked into a rocker of an opener, things went from great to incredible - and this was just the opening act!

Muse! Gotta be one of my favourite bands out there right now 

Happy concert goers during the intermission - yes, I could’ve cropped the pic, but notice the flood of people above our heads!

Not only was the music amazing, but the showmanship of the band truly provided for a breathtaking experience. And then U2 came onstage and the crowd went berserk. Armed with a setlist that ranged from old favourites to new anthems, U2 put on one of the best shows of my life. Utilizing the ring that encircled the main stage, the members of the band walked out to be even closer to the audience and for multiple times throughout the concert I was only five meters away from Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr (yes, even Mullen Jr got off of his drum set and walked out with a djembe.)

U2, my favourite middle-aged band… and the head of a middle-aged fan.

 See, I told you I was five meters away from Bono!

…and from The Edge and Adam Clayton, too!

The beehive piece that hovered over the stage

It is truly quite a remarkable experience to be part of something so big and yet have it feel so personal. For the final encore, every member of the audience (or at least it seemed like everyone) got out their cell phones to create a galaxy not of stars, but of LCD screens. As Bono sang on, I thought about how incredible it was to have so many individuals act as one body. I realized that, in a way, that’s what it’s like at the University of Richmond. Although we are not a large state school, we still have people of countless different backgrounds and life experiences. Even with so many different kind of people, we all come together as Spiders. I guess I couldn’t escape that “school state of mind” after all.

-Shohsei 

This past Friday, I went on a field trip to Rome for my fresco painting class. We went to Basilica di San Clemente, Basilica SS. Quatro Coronati, and Museo del Quirinale. Going to these places gave us the opportunity to study and become familiar with frescoes from different time periods. It also gave us plenty of ideas for our first fresco assignment, which we’re starting next week. After that, I met up with my friend Julia from Richmond. I spent the summer with her in Turkey and now she’s studying abroad in Rome, so we spent the afternoon and evening together. It was so much fun to be able to catch up with each other, and we spent most of our time together walking all over Rome and talking. It was definitely weird being in Rome and not going to all of the major sites and museums (I’d never been to Rome before), but I’m planning a weekend trip to go back and see everything. However, on my walk I did get to see the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, and one of Bernini’s fountains.

Because I had the daytrip on Friday, I wasn’t able to go away for the weekend, which ended up being amazing! One of my other apartment mates and I spent the weekend in Perugia, which we hadn’t done since we’ve been here. After talking to people who already studied abroad, they always said that their biggest regret was not spending more time in the city or town where they studied. I think I was so exhausted from balancing school and traveling that I definitely needed a weekend to relax and catch up on sleep. On Saturday, Lindsay and I went to the big market that they hold in Perugia every Saturday. The market had everything from fruits and vegetables to clothing. It was a really neat experience and I’m glad we were able to go. Saturday night, we decided to be a little more adventurous with our cooking, so we made baked vegetables, pasta, and a homemade tomato sauce. It was nice to actually have to time cook a nice meal and to change things up a little bit. Other than that, I just got to relax a lot this weekend and do some cleaning around the house–things I normally wouldn’t have time to do if I had gone away.

Here are some pictures from Rome and my weekend in Perugia:

Basilica SS. Quatro Coronati, Rome. This is where the nuns pray every day.

The Trevi Fountain, Rome

Saturday market in Perugia

Cooking dinner Saturday night

“Celebrate refreshed” the fact that the 2008 National Champions are the Richmond Spiders!

I just think it’s unbelieveable that Coca-Cola did this. Granted, they have a contract with UR in order to be the only providers of soft drinks and other beverages, but I still think it’s pretty cool to have coke cans celebrating the fact that we won the tournament.

6-pack of commemorative coke cans - $10 It’s a BIG deal!

For more information on this you can visit http://www.richmondspiders.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/080509aaa.html

As soon as I got here, the football season began, but I was still not that much into it, until I heard about how good we were. I went to a game against Georgetown and we won 40-0, but it wasn’t until we got to the quarterfinals that I truly became a fan. I woke up one saturday afternoon and turned on the tv to find the Spiders playing against a random team I had never heard of before. I could see some friends on the football field and thought that was the coolest thing ever, so I kept watching. And we won, qualifying to the semifinals of the NCAA Divsion I tournament.

The day of the game against Northern Iowa, I called 6 of my friends and we all watched the game in my room with 3 pizza boxes in front of us. It was an amazing game! Ended up winning 21-20 in the last minute of the game and advanced to the championship game.

We won that one too, against Montana, and became 2008 NCAA Division I National Champions! It was unbelieveable and surreal to be experiencing all of that excitement during my first year at UR, and it was enough for me to not want to miss a single game.

This year, the Spiders have continued to win. After the first two games, at Duke and at Delaware, it was time for our first game home against Hofstra, and I knew there was no way I could miss that game. I started taking pictures of the scoreboard everytime we scored, but after a while I realized that it was pointless.

This was the last picture I took, with two quarters to go!

We ended up winning the game 48-0. I think even the scorekeepers lost count after a while! But what I was able to get, right before leaving, was this amazing picture of Richmond’s PAT.

Can you see the football? The kick is up aaaand…IT’S GOOD!

The Spiders have now won 12 consecutive games, dating back from last season!

On Thursday night, I left for Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. It was pretty stressful having to focus on my schoolwork and prepare for Germany at the same time, but everything worked out really well. My flight flew out of Bologna on Friday morning, so I spent the night in Bologna (with a friend of a friend), got to the airport early, and arrived in Munich around 10:30am. The weekend was so much fun, especially because I studied German in high school, so I was finally able to practice (what I remembered of) the language! Also, a bunch of my friends from Richmond and I planned to meet up and stay together, so it was so much fun to catch up and hear all about everyone’s different abroad experiences from all over Europe. Just in my hotel room, I had friends studying abroad in Italy, Spain, and Ireland. On Friday and Saturday we went to the fairgrounds, where there were tons of rides and great food (bratwurst and pretzels). Everyone was dressed up in the traditional lederhosen outfits, singing German songs. This morning, I went on a free three-hour walking tour of Munich. On the tour, we got to see famous sites such as the Rathaus Glockenspiel, the Frauenkirche, and St. Peter’s Church. Munich is such a beautiful city and I definitely want to go back sometime! I made it back safely tonight, and now I’m so exhausted I’m going to go to bed right away! Auf wiedersehen!

The entranceway to the fairgrounds

Richmond Spiders!

The Rathaus Glockenspiel in Marienplatz

Ok, here I go. Today was meant to talk about the Spiders’ first home game but… should I talk about the Doose or the the game first? Well, seeing as I’ll never hear your personal answer to the question, I’ll just start things off with Friday, Day of the Goose-Duck:

Taken from a great distance.

See what I mean. This Goose-Duck, or simply Doose as I like to say (pronounced like a 2 in a deck o’ cards), has to be the greatest embodiment of malevolence I have ever met. This fowl (defined as both birdlike, and wretched) beast is the most vicious avian creature to ever waltz on this side of the hemisphere. And I am forced to cross paths with this monster nearly every day. From day one, we shared a mutual hatred towards each other. At first, I bared not a single clue as to what this animal could possibly be. Among the many normal geese and ducks by the campus lake, stands Doose, and just like the Liger, the involuntary child of a lion and a tiger, this creation shares traits with both of those around him, and with the body of a goose and bill of a duck, this creature became the weird, singled-out bird who wants all the attention.

When does it’s evil truly manifest? I’ll tell you. One day, roomie and I decided to happily circumnavigate our way around the lake, eager to make it to D Hall for a well-deserved feast that we celebrate after a long week of schooling. When all of sudden, as we are dodging the brown, mushy presents our local geese have left for us, Doose sneaks its ugly head out of the water and begins it’s (having no gender because is it the sole being of its species) cascade of squawks and howls to shoo us off it’s “property.” The geese spit, not excited to see their freak cousin’s next move. I, being the person that I am, argue with Doose, yelling back “It’s a free country, Bird-boy!” This sends Doose into a spiraling fit of pure rage. He begins his assault, sprinting at us with a face redder than ripe tomatoes, and nips at Matt’s leg. We dash, never to see Doose this angry ever again.

We have sort of come to terms since then. I gave him a piece of bread from an old quesadilla he seemed to enjoy, but it only led him to blurt out his famous squawks of anger that lead me to seek refuge in Marsh Hall, never standing beside the lake in “Doose territory” for more than a handful of seconds.

In other news, my roommate got over his injury delivered by Dark Wing Duck and was able to effectively sit on the sidelines for the first home football game the next day, an exciting event. All the freshman made a human tunnel for the Spiders to charge out of, (mostly) red and (some) blue painted the Richmond side of the stadium, I got a free Ponyo poster courtesy of Radio Disney (they were at the game too… don’t ask because I truly don’t have a reason for you), we won 47-0 against Hofstra (a NY University my parents met, attending for Graduate Law) and I took this beast football picture that could definitely’ve donned the front page of The Collegian (school newspaper) that week.

Warm Regards,

Nick Candido
nick.diary@richmond.edu

I think it’s high time that I fill you in (at least briefly) on my summer abroad.

As you may or may not know, I participated in a UR study abroad program called Summer in Seville. With this program, about 25 students are selected to travel to Spain and take up to two courses in Spanish. Two of our professors here are a part of the program, and there were also two professors in Spain that taught classes for us as well. The program duration was five and a half weeks, although only four weeks are spent taking classes. The program also included a number of program trips, either around the city of Seville or in various parts of Spain. All of the students live with a host family throughout the entire time in Seville and have a roommate from our program. In this way, we got to experience firsthand the Spanish culture in food, domestic norms, and overall way of life. ¡Qué bien!

Upon arriving in the airport, I can say I had a bit of a culture shock—while we had flown direct from the Philadelphia airport to that of Madrid, it seemed as if there was no one in the airport who spoke English. Yes, of course I knew I was in Spain; however, when I was desperately trying to find my way to the train station and figure out how to buy a one-way ticket on the subway (there was no English option), I realized how spoiled I am here in America. Surely, I thought, lots of people know English, whether able to speak or simply understand. Nevertheless, I was quite mistaken on that day, and it seemed it was that day that I needed it the most. It is true, too, that I know Spanish, but upon reaching the country, everything seemed (or rather was) so much faster and more complex. My Spanish brain was not exactly warmed up, either, to even begin to understand what people were trying to tell me. The phrase I kept on running into was “No te entiendo” (“I don’t understand you”). What a day it was!

The ironic part about that particular experience, though, is that it changed drastically as time went on. As I got more comfortable with my Spanish speaking skills and used them more, I ran into more and more English-speaking Spaniards who decided to practice their English as opposed to let me practice my Spanish. And that, of course, was more than a little frustrating. Nonetheless, I can confidently say that I significantly improved my speaking skills while in the country. The immersion experience is amazing!

Even though I would love to continue, Prospectives, I think I will stop here for now. Just revisiting my experience in this post has reminded me how many wonderful and informative things that I can share with you all about my summer experience, as well as study abroad in general. For that reason, instead of trying to squeeze things all into one post here (and have you all miss out on a lot of great details and pictures), I will break my Summer in Seville into sections and post about it from time to time throughout the semester. Since study abroad is so prevalent here at University of Richmond, I am sure you may be interested in more information about my experience. For that reason, I encourage you to check back throughout the semester (if you’re not already a regular reader), so that you can learn more about the interesting highs and lows of study abroad.

Hope you enjoyed this snapshot. More will soon follow.

Until next time,

Amani

Another thing I can confidently say about college is that the amount of homework you have is directly proportional (I’ve been studying for physics, sorry) to the amount of distractions there are. Indeed, the days I had the most work to do also seemed to be the days which had the most people drop by my room, the most on-campus events occurring, and the most times my roommate said, “Dude, check out this Youtube video!” Consequently, I have discovered that it is more difficult to stay focused in college than it was in high school, which is weird because I’m supposed to be more mature now, right? Dealing with work and play therefore becomes a delicate balancing act, made infinitely harder by the winds of trying to find a routine and the fact that everything is so fresh and different.

However, don’t let me misguide you in thinking that finding this balance is just another obstacle, like a reading assignment or a homework problem that has to be finished. It is rather something to be appreciated. The chaotic aspect of it makes it exciting and the challenge of it makes it satisfying: like a good hike. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make any metaphors about how all of college life is like climbing a mountain (it would be naive of me seeing as how I’ve only been here for a week and a half), but from what I’ve experienced so far, I can say that the challenges at college make it all the more enjoyable. Most likely once my first midterm exam comes around you’ll find that I’ll have a completely different opinion about this.

The good thing with being so busy I suppose is that it mutes your longing for your home, your old friends, and your family. Strange how I can acknowledge this right now and still not feel any pangs of homesickness. Truly, there is too much going on for me to become homesick, and although this may make me sound nasty, it’s actually a good thing. Besides, Richmond is day by day becoming my new home, my new friends, my new family. How wonderful it is that I can say this. I feel very fortunate and indeed do not take it for granted. I wonder how I’ll feel about that when my first exam rolls by.

An anachronistic and slightly unrelated picture (added later) from the season opener - Richmond vs. Duke. 24-16 Victory, baby! 

-Shohsei

[North Court, a dorm and an academic building, is where I began my classes]

My first class of the week was CORE, or “Exploring Human Experience,” as it is called in the course guide. CORE is sort of like a mix between Freshman Seminar and Humanities. It is required for all freshmen and taught by professors from various departments, from Russian to Fine Arts. We read good books—the books you always promise yourself you will read, but never quite get around to—like Plato’s Apology, Darwin’s On Evolution, and The Communist Manifesto. My professor is super intelligent and I think that I am going to be learning a lot from him this year. During my first class, we discussed our summer reading and my professor explained what his expectations were for us. It was refreshing to be in a room full of insightful teenagers who enjoy learning.

I continued my day with Intro to International Relations (IR), taught by one of the funniest and most knowledgeable professors alive. Everyone seemed to enjoy his relaxed and discussion-based teaching style. He left a larger state university to teach here so that he could have more interaction with his students, so he truly appreciates our input in class. We started the week by going over some of the basic theories of International Relations (Realism, Liberalism, Feminism, Perspectivism, etc). So far, this class is one of my favorites!

[Weinstein Hall, home of political science, journalism, sociology, and communications]

 So, I have a break between my IR class and my last class of the day, Cold War. This break is a pretty awkward amount of time, as it isn’t exactly nap material, but it is long enough that I feel lame just waiting outside the classroom. So on my first day, I decided to go back to my dorm to get a head start on my homework for the week. BAD idea!! Earlier that day, I had lost the schedule that I had printed out for myself, so I had just been “winging” the times of each of my classes. My Cold War class is from 3 to 3:50. I just remembered the part about 3:50. So, I was just relaxing in my dorm, thinking my class started at 3:50, when I realized (around 3:15) that my class indeed started at 3:00. I jumped up and rushed to class, by this time thirty minutes late. Since classes are so small at Richmond, of course my professor noticed that I was late.

“You must be Emily,” my professor said, chuckling.

“I’m SO sorry! I’m not normally late; this won’t happen again!” I replied, panicking and out of breath from running across campus. He told me that it wasn’t a problem and to have a seat. After class, I went to apologize again, but he insisted it was okay. I returned to my dorm, slightly embarrassed, but alive.

For the rest of the week, I managed to attend my classes on time. On Tuesday, I started Intro to Jazz Dance, a class where I get to dance twice a week for credit! Not only do I get a credit, but it fulfills my Visual and Performing Arts requirement. We still have to write some papers, but come on… It’s awesome!

[The cast of “Chairity,” a dance my class performed during 10^th grade]

All in all, my first week of classes was INCREDIBLE! I really love my classes so far and the material is so interesting. My professors are witty, extremely helpful, intelligent, comprehensible, and super enthusiastic about their respective subjects. My professor for Cold War even lives in Berlin where he does his research on Cold War politics in a divided Germany. I can’t wait to learn all that I can in the next few months! Speaking of learning, I should get started on some homework. I will be in Jamestown all weekend for my Bonner Orientation, so I won’t have much time for schoolwork when I get back on Sunday. I’ll tell you all about my trip when I get back!

Until next time,

Emily

Regardless of how quickly or slowly Orientation week went by, one thing I know for sure is that I already feel (somewhat) at home. Okay, so I had to add the “somewhat” to the sentence - I have to be truthful here - but even with that “somewhat” in there this is still a remarkable feat. I would never had expected that I could feel so comfortable in a place I’ve only been at for less than a week, and for that I applaud the Orientation committee and every single professor, staff member, upperclassman, and fellow freshman I met during New Student Orientation. Thank you for your welcoming greetings, conversations, and actions.

Speaking of freshmen, it’s strange to think that I’m at the bottom of the food chain again. Of course this was to be expected, but in all of the excitement in preparing for college, it never crossed my mind that I would be at the bottom of the bottom again. Oh, joy… This week, the ratio of times my upperclassmen friends called me “freshman” to actually using my real name was a rather large ratio. No, I am not implying that the upperclassmen here are jerks; just rather playful in nature, which I genuinely appreciate because in Japanese high schools and colleges (which I never attended, but I still witnessed the phenomenon I am about to explain nonetheless), your class year defines your class rank in school society. Upperclassmen therefore get to unload all of their dirty laundry on freshmen for them to wash. This is a worst case scenario, but you get the picture… and don’t get any ideas, upperclassmen.

Strangely enough, every time I am referred to as a freshman or as a member of the class of 2013, I must admit that I rather enjoy it: not in any freaky or masochistic way, but because every time I am reminded that I still have four spectacular years ahead of me left to experience. That’s right: five days gone, 1455 more to go (note: this is really bad math considering that I will not actually be in college for every day over the next four years… could this be why I am not taking Calculus?)

Four years may seem like a long time, but looking back, it’s rather incredible to think how quickly high school went by. With the addition of countless interesting events to attend, fun activities to do, and thousands of people to meet, the four years of college will probably speed by even faster, and all I can do is try my best to hold onto every single blissful moment. Perhaps this is one of those important life lessons that so many Orientation Week speakers emphasized during this past week. If so, I guess I’m off to a good start.

-Shohsei

Each year, freshmen and transfer students move in early so that they can become “oriented” to life at Richmond before classes begin. Now, I like to think that the orientation process began as free time for students to mingle and learn their way around campus by aimlessly wandering from hall to hall. Over the years, however, upperclassmen probably developed a list of things they wished they had known when they were freshmen. Thus, the evolution of the current orientation program—PACKED with advisory meetings, food, games, seminars, surveys, skits, and anything else that may be helpful to new students at Richmond.

[Brief segments of the itinerary for Friday, August 21 (left) and Saturday, August 22 (right)]

I actually arrived three days before the actual freshman orientation began to participate in a pre-orientation program called Roadmap where I took a writing class, met my academic advisor, and got to move in three days earlier than the majority of my class, which was really nice. Roadmap consisted of everything from seminars (an assortment of discussions on decision-making, learning how to embrace diversity, the future of Richmond, and many other topics) to a massive scavenger hunt, where we attempted to find our way around school with help from the not-so-user-friendly campus map. One night, we went on a James River dinner cruise where, naturally, many of us were compelled to personify Rose Dawson and yell “Jack, I’m flying!” at the bow of the ship.

[Random dock on the dinner cruise during pre-orientation.]

I would highly suggest Roadmap to anyone considering pre-orientation. It was a great opportunity to get settled into my dorm and meet new people before nine hundred freshmen stormed campus. That’s not to say that it’s the only time I’ve met people. Freshman orientation introduces first-years to a ridiculous number of people in five days. At events like Vegas Night (more like 80’s night with blackjack) and Playfair (a GIANT icebreaker/speed ‘friending’ in the Jepson Arena), I have met hundreds of new people. And these are people that I can see again. Richmond is just big enough that I can meet new people all the time, but small enough that I can see people again after I meet them. It’s pretty cool to be on my way to the library and see the guy that I hopped on one leg with at Playfair, or the girl from my writing class at Roadmap, while simultaneously passing a thousand new faces. It makes me feel like a part of a huge network, which I guess was the point of orientation all along.

[My orientation group and I at Vegas Night!]

Well, I better get some sleep while I have a little free time. I don’t want to be running on fumes before classes even start! I’ll check in next week to let you know how my first week is going.

Until next time,

Emily

Hey there! As you can tell from my heading, my name is Emily and I am a freshman at the University of Richmond. Through my Spider Diary, I hope to give you an inside look into student life here at Richmond. I will let you know about exciting events happening all over campus, from football games to theatrical performances and many things in between. I am also in the Bonner Scholars Program here at Richmond, which encourages students to interact with their community through volunteering. In addition to showing you what life is like as a student, I’ll try to keep you updated on some awesome projects at the Center for Civic Engagement (where Bonner is based). While I’m talking about my goals for this diary, I guess I can tell you some goals for my career at the University of Richmond. I hope to have degrees in both Psychology and International Studies when I leave Richmond, but it’s a little early to be talking about leaving since I just got here! So, I guess I can tell you how I got here.

I am originally from Ringgold, Georgia, which is about eight miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I attended school. In September of senior year, my school held a college fair with representatives from all over the country. I wouldn’t have gone, except it was required. I guess you could say I was a little apathetic toward college. Or, more honestly, I was totally avoiding it. It’s not that I had a vendetta against higher education; I had every intention of going to college someday. I just wasn’t ready for high school to be over.
You see, I’ve always been afraid of growing up. At my third grade graduation, I bawled uncontrollably. Before eighth grade commencement, I wept as some of my classmates sang “Time of your Life” in front of a montage of pictures from our last year in middle school. Even more, I cried on Halloween my junior year because it was the second-to-last Halloween that I would have in high school. I know… pathetic! But no one blames Peter Pan for never wanting to grow up!

So, I went to the required college fair. I talked to reps behind velvet tablecloths, collected brochures (and free pens!), and filled out information cards until my hand throbbed. I finally ended up at a table marked “University of Richmond.” After speaking with the representative about the academics at Richmond and doing some research online, I decided to apply. My school’s college counselor urged me to visit each school I applied to, so I visited Richmond in April. I had already toured eight (8) different schools and was, for the first time, impressed. Although the facilities were dazzling and the amenities were indulgent, I was impressed by how easily I saw myself here. Myth has it that when you find the perfect wedding dress, you just know. Well I guess you could say that UR was my figurative wedding dress. I stepped onto campus and knew. I knew that I could grow here. I knew that I would have one-of-a-kind opportunities of all sorts here. More than anything, I knew that I belonged here. I know it sounds melodramatic, but you must remember–I shuddered at even the thought of going to college. I wanted to stay in high school forever! I was terrified of taking the next step into adulthood. So it must have been authentic if I, the girl that didn’t want to grow up, liked a college.

After I returned home, plans for UR fell into place. I received my acceptance letter the day after my tour and I received my financial aid package a few days after that. In mid-April, I was accepted into the Bonner Scholars program, something that I desperately wanted. Now it was set; I was going to be a Richmond Spider. For the first time, I began to look forward to college. After graduation, many people asked me, “So are you sad that it’s over?”

[Three of my friends and I before graduation.]

I would reply with, “A little, but I’m so excited about Richmond that I don’t really have time to be sad about leaving.” My fear of leaving childhood became an eagerness to experience change and growth. If I was Peter Pan in high school, I guess you could say I was now Jasmine, curious and excited to experience a “whole new world.” For me, Richmond was a perfect fit. I hope that your quest to find the right college is just as fulfilling. Keep reading and I will try to help you along your journey.

Until next time,

Emily

Okay, stop reading for a moment and take this time to get over the fact that I started a journal entry with something as banal as a quote. Corny, right? Worse yet is the fact that I don’t even know who originally pronounced the comment; all I know is that I have heard the same thing said (albeit in different ways) whenever I told people that I was heading off to college.Indeed, these days a lot of people seem to be convinced that a college degree won’t necessarily get you a job right after graduation. In times of social uncertainty, people like me who are going to start college perhaps feel protected from the fearsome truths of independent life. We don’t have to deal with making a living, the bills we worry about now our minor compared to what we’ll be paying in the future, and we don’t have families to raise. However, it would be nothing but an utter lie to say that the summer before college isn’t an anxiety-filled time. Exciting, but in a nerve-racking way.

For myself, as a half Japanese-half American guy who attended an International school in Japan for his whole life, I will not only be living in a different country, but I will also be immersed in a different culture. True, the curriculum at my school was all in English and most of my teachers were from the States, but that doesn’t make me as American as my U.S. passport says. And the fact that I not only love sushi, but natto (fermented soybeans, yum) and wasabi as well doesn’t exactly make me as Japanese as my other passport says. Biculturalism is truly its own culture, and when I consider that I’ll be starting school in a city that used to be the capital of the Confederate States of America, I realize things are going to be completely different.

Sapporo, my city, at night

Another reason I have to be anxious during my pre-college summer is that my ambition is to be a professional musician. “Great, so you’re going to study music, right?” Not so fast. The music I play isn’t exactly taught at school. There aren’t any “rock star 101” courses at universities, and believe me, I’ve looked. So on top of thinking about the fact that I’ll be living in a different culture, I have big life questions on my mind like, “Did I make the right choice in deciding to go to college?” “Should I have just worked more seriously with my band back home and waited for our lucky break?” As you can see, considering the fact that I’m on summer break, there has been a lot going on in my head.

So how can I enjoy my vacation with so much to be anxious about? How can I sleep (synonymous with vacation, I suppose) with so many questions penetrating my conscious? The most reassuring factor that puts my mind at ease is the fact that I will be attending the University of Richmond, my first-choice school. There were many reasons why Richmond was at the top of the list: its wide range of available academic programs seemed perfect for someone like me who hasn’t decided what they want to major in yet. The smaller class sizes were attractive in that it meant I wasn’t going to be just another number to professors (yes, professors, not TAs), but someone they could call by name.

The university also pursues educating students to be prepared as global citizens for a world where an understanding of the international community is valuable not only in business relations, but in the world of arts and sciences as well. The foreign language requirement and a study-abroad program that earned UR the title of “hottest school for international studies” from Newsweek stand as testament to this.

Besides academic excellence, Richmond also offers all kinds of other things I wanted for my college life, like a beautiful campus that nurtures a community feeling. Both times I visited the school I was impressed by the aesthetically pleasing campus design and the friendly people. UR also has countless student-run clubs and activities, so I know I’ll never get bored. The school’s proximity to a big city is also a plus. (Okay, so Richmond may not be the largest city in the U.S., but coming from a city of 2 million, I knew I didn’t want anything too “small-townesque”).

Finally, UR truly seems to take a genuine interest in its students. The school isn’t just concerned with statistics such as its retention rate, the average GPA of students, or how much graduates earn; rather, my impression is that UR takes an interest in seeing personal growth within its students. Perhaps that is the most reassuring aspect of heading off to Richmond - I know that the school doesn’t just want me to graduate, it wants me to develop as a person. That is why I can say that when I graduate I will have more than just a degree: I will also have four years of experience under my belt that I wouldn’t have been able to receive anywhere else. This is why I can sleep at night and actually enjoy this final summer before college. This is why I chose the University of Richmond.

-Shohsei