First week of school

Hey everyone,

So the title may be a little deceiving since it's not actually the first week of school anymore, but I'll write all about the first week of school. I got back to New Orleans on Sunday night and have been overwhelmed by all my new classes and the Martin Luther King Day of Service I helped to plan (I'll write more about it my next blog post when I have pictures to share!) that I haven't had the chance to write though. However, I am resolved to write more frequently this semester.

Anyways, one of my roommates/best friends Arielle (who has been featured on this blog many a time) got her gall bladder removed a couple of weeks ago and because she was in recovery, she did not make it back to Tulane till this past Saturday. So Amanda made her a carrot cake:

She seemed to enjoy it. (And we all enjoyed it because Amanda makes very tasty things in our kitchen)

And I'm taking some pretty cool classes this semester which I am really excited about. I am taking a couple of graduate level sociology seminars which look like they're going to be great! One is Issues in the Sociology of the Family in which we're focusing all about marriage and its place as a social institution and another about Sociology of Childhood where attitudes about children and childhood will be examined. I'm kind of a dork about these things, so I'm excited. I'm also taking an Intro to Gender and Sexuality Studies class which looks like it's going to be awesome, so I'm really excited about my classes!

Also, the construction that has been happening on McAlister Place (formerly McAlister Drive) got finished at the end of last week and I'm so excited! Not only do I think it's very pretty, but we now don't have to navigate around those construction fences to get through to the academic quad.

Okay. That's all I got for y'all. Got to get make some headway on my classes now! Only a few more weeks till Mardi Gras!

Winter Break

Happy New Years, all!

It's a little less than a week before school starts again, and I thought that I would take the time to post about my winter break. It's been a really great break so far! After taking all of my finals, I flew out to Phoenix, AZ on my way home to California to spend time with a couple of my cousins, Kathleen and Tina, who live out there. It was a lot of fun. Below is a picture of me shopping with my cousin Tina. She's an '05 Tulane alum who now goes to pharmacy school in Arizona. We talked about how much Tulane has changed/stayed the same since she went to school here (we also mourned the death of Tulane icon, Granny Cart Lady)


Then, I went back home to California, spent a little bit of time working at the chocolate store I usually work at when I'm at home, and hung out with my family and some friends from high school. This is a picture from Christmas with two of my little cousins (aren't they cute?) I


Then, I payed a surprise visit to Bryan in Pittsburgh for New Years Eve (which is actually where I'm typing from now). It was cute. One of his friends, Amanda, convinced him to go to the airport with her to "pick up her friend Jake." I walked towards him and bumped into him, he did a double take, and couldn't believe that I was there. But I've been hanging out here on the East Coast ever since. Below is the picture of us before heading out to a 1920s themed New Years Party.


Anyways, that's all from my end. I should be studying for the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) so that I could possibly get into graduate school in the fall! But hope everyone had a great new years. Next time you hear from me will be from New Orleans!

The End of a Semester

So, it's the end of another semester. I can't believe it's already done. I guess I always feel this way at the end of the semester, but I can't really help it.

Let's recap shall we:
- Moved-in and was an orientation coordinator for the freshman girls in Monroe. Had a lot of fun meeting the girls on my floor and taking them to all the orientation events.
- Outreach Tulane. Good times. Finally have a picture from that by the way (This is Chelsea "taking my blood pressure".. We had invited TEMS to help out at our community health fair):
- Started classes. Had a very busy schedule, but I enjoyed all of them.
- I turned 20! Good times.
- Homecoming. Greatest week ever. Lots of free Tulane give-aways and spirit!
- A lot more community service things. Mentored with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Best Buddies, Project Grandpeople, and science club.
- A lot of fun GWA (Green Wave Amabassadors) things like giving tours and having student lunches.
-WiS things - met a lot of new people and got to have dinner with Celine Cousteau. Awesome.
- Halloween. Who doesn't love Halloween?
- Po-Boy fest. Yum.
- Couldn't have asked for a better Thanksgiving.
- Finals. Not so fun.

But now, I've finished. And it's been a great semester!

So, let's see what's in store for me. I'm going to be going to Arizona to visit a couple of my cousins (one of them is actually an '05 Tulane graduate who just graduated pharmacy school), then I'll be at home in California hanging out for the holidays, and then I'll be in Pittsburgh before I head back here for spring semester!

Anyways, I'll hopefully be posting a few times over break. Can't wait for the spring! More on that when it gets closer though. For now, I hope everyone has happy holidays!

Po-Boy fest and Thanksgiving things

Hey all,

So, today was the last day of classes! I definitely cannot believe that it's already the end of my last fall semester here at Tulane. I'm getting old.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I know I did! It was a great break away from school, that's for sure!

One really cool thing that I got to go to before leaving for Thanksgiving holiday, though, is going to the annual Po-Boy festival. Maeve and I headed over to Oak street (like a fifteen minute walk at most) and joined the crowd of people that had congregated on that Sunday to taste some of the finest food New Orleans had to offer.


So Maeve and I, of course, had to get po-boys (which for all of you non-New Orleanians is basically a sandwhich... but infinitely more delicious). Maeve got a cochon de lait po-boy which is a roasted pork sandwhich and it had some coleslaw and other good things like that in it. I got a classic fried shrimp po-boy and it was so good. Notice the emphasis on the so. (Unfortunately Maeve's sandwich got cut off in the picture)


Anyways, it was a really fun afternoon. There was lots of live music, some people dancing, and did I mentioned the great food? Oh. We both also tried this amazing pumpking pie cake which was one of the best things I think I have ever eaten in my entire life from Bozo's restaurant (which we need to find again because that pumpkin pie cake was like heaven in my mouth!)

But now that classes are over. Do you know what that means? Yes, folks. It's time for finals, unfortunately. My schedule doesn't look too, too bad. But it's pretty bad. I have lots and lots of papers to write and onle a couple of actual tests. But yeah. Wish me luck!

I'll be sure to write at least one more post before I leave for home! Good luck with applications, y'all!

Notes on Community Service

As you all probably have figured out by now, I love doing community service. I mean, I wouldn't even be here at Tulane if it wasn't for community service!

So, a couple weekends ago, I had the pleasure of accomponying my friend Seth to an awards dinner where he was honored by Operation Reach as a finalist for a young leader in the community award. It was a really fun meeting all sorts of people in the community who are making a big difference in the community.


I was really proud of Seth who, as chairperson of CACTUS, works hard to bring about change right here in the city!

On a similar vein, I had dinner this past weekend with CACTUS with LUCAP (the Loyola University Commuity Action Program) which is Loyola University's community service organization. A few LUCAP-ers were kind enough to host a bunch of us CACTUS-ers at their house, and we had a delicious home-cooked meal (I must steal Chad's sweet potato/corn/jalepeno soup recipe) and talked about social issues that both of our universities are trying to fight in the city. It was cool meeting with like-minded students from our neighboring university!

Anyways, I have a really busy week ahead with various midterm papers and such, but after that, it's going to be Thanksgiving! So I'm really excited!

I hope you all got your early applications in time!

Halloween

Wow. Can you believe that it's already November? I can't! It's only two and a half more weeks until Thanksgiving, and then after that it's only a couple of weeks until the end of the semester. Crazy! Where did all the time go?

Well, this past weekend was Halloween, and of course, being in New Orleans, it was a lot of fun.

One of the great opportunities that I got to participate in was Boo at the Zoo which was held at the Audubon Zoo (which is practically right across the street from campus). It was a Halloween night for families with music, food, games, and trick-or-treating. The best part? All the proceeds went to benefit the zoo and the Children's Hospital.

We (me, Maeve, and Katie, pictured below) got placed at the "Big Kid's Games" section and we were in charge of a booth where kids tried to throw ping pong balls into the haunted house that you can kind of see behind us in the picture for tickets. Also, in case you were wondering, I was dressed up as a fairy princess and Maeve was a bird...


On Halloween, I hung out with a few friends and went to a Halloween party. Below is a picture of me (dressed up as Tom Cruise from Risky Business), Holly (a cowgirl), and Seth (dressed up an matronly woman) being silly.


Anyways, that's all from my end. Big perspective weekend on Sunday. Can't wait to meet some more future Tulanians!

Celine Cousteau

Hey all,

As always, I am apologizing for not posting in a little while. I swear these things will come weekly instead of every other week. Keep me to it!

Anyways, I have some really exciting updates from here in New Orleans. I just came from a dinner reception with none other than Celine Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau's granddaughter! It was great! She was invited to come speak by the Newcomb Institute and since I was the chair of the Women in Science committee in charge of bringing a speaker to campus, we worked to set up her lecture, a nice daytime reception with a small group of undergraduates, and the dinner reception I just came from.

Celine talked to us about the importance of environment conservation, sustainability, and giving back to others since we are all part of the same human species. It was a really great lecture. And then dinner at Daisy Bistro was amazing and we got an even more intimate chat with her over some great food.

Anyways, another great opportunity provided by Tulane which I thoroughly enjoyed and had to gush about. Celine was even nice enough to take a picture with some of the girls who came to the dinner and me!

Have a great Halloween weekend everyone!