Welcome Back!

Welcome back everyone! The first week of classes for the spring semester is officially finished! The winter break was nice and relaxing for me. I came back a week before classes started for RA training which was fun! It's nice to see everyone again after the long break. This should be a busy semester for me as always, but I like the way my class schedule is set up. I have started out this week fairly productive and managing my time well which is a very nice feeling. Hopefully, I'll be able to carry it through the rest of the semester.

Another piece of exciting news for today is that Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle visited the UW-L campus. He came and gave a speech about the current budget deficit and how it will impact the state and UW-L. A bunch of students got to stand behind the Governor while he addressed the audience and I was one of them! I will probably be on the local news tonight! I also got a picture with him and was able to talk with him a little bit. It was very exciting!!

Anyway, I am also excited for all that this semester holds!! I hope you are too! :)

Rotary Lights

Well, final exams are in full swing here at UW-L. I had my genetics final yesterday and my radiation physics final today. In addition, I had an eportfolio for one of my radiation therapy classes due today. Then I have my pathophysiology final on Monday, but that one is not cumulative so that helps.

To take a little break from studying and celebrate the completion of two finals, I am going to the Rotary Lights tonight with some of my friends. This is a HUGE holiday light display at Riverside Park in downtown La Crosse. There are over a million lights in different designs all throughout the park. It is something that is done every year and they collect money and food items to donate to the local food pantry, which really helps during the holiday season. I am really excited to relax and have a little fun with my friends while getting to see all the wonderful lights. I hear they even have real reindeer there! I'll let you know if I see Rudolph... :)

RHAC Winter Formal

The Residence Hall Association Council (RHAC) is hosting their annual Winter Formal tonight. It is being held downtown at the La Crosse Center from 9:30pm to 1:30am. It is sure to be a wonderful time! Unfortunately, I will not be attending because I am "on duty" this weekend as part of being a Resident Assistant. This involves making sure the building is secure and that everyone is behaving themselves. Hopefully, I'll be able to see everyone in their formal attire before they leave to go to the Formal.

Also, today was the end of the last full week of classes before finals begin. So as you might guess, things are getting a little tense around campus with the end of the semester approaching so fast and final exams just around the corner. Oh well, one thing's for sure--we all want winter break to come as soon as possible. It will be here soon enough, we just have to jump through a few hoops to get the end reward of relaxation and a break from school for a few weeks! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Well, as of 5:30p.m. tonight, Coate Hall is officially closed for the Thanksgiving holiday! As a RA, I had to help "close" the building which means I had to clean up the hallways, vacuum, etc. to make sure that Coate Hall was in tip top condition. Now that all is said and done, I am headed home to spend Thanksgiving with my family! I'm excited to have a little break from school. Once we come back, there is only a week and a half left of classes before finals start! Yikes, then before you know it, the semester will be over. For right now, I'll just concentrate on enjoying the break and having a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! :)

Movie Night!

Well, we've made it through yet another week of this fall semester and I am sure glad it's Friday! Today I turned in my big research paper on my fruit fly experiment that I have been doing this whole semester for my genetics class. The first week of classes, we were given fruit flies with a certain mutation and then we had to cross them with normal flies for a couple generations. After doing so, then we had to look at the fruit flies under a microscope and identify if they had mutations or not and record that in our data, which is the basis for the whole research paper. It is a huge relief to have that off of my to do list!

Tonight, Angell Hall is putting on an all-campus program based on the TV show "Whose Line is it Anyway?" in Graff Main Hall at 7pm. Groups from all of the residence halls on campus signed up to participate in the show itself, while others can still go just to be a part of the audience. Afterwards, I am also hosting a Movie Night for my residents in Coate Hall's Big TV Room in the basement. I'm sure it will be a good time to get to know one another and relax after working hard all week. :)

Wagner Wedding Weekend

This weekend Coate Hall is hosting an all-hall event called the Wagner Wedding Weekend! We've literally been planning this for about two months and we've put a lot of hard work into it. Basically, we're holding a mock wedding celebration as the culmination of our "Girl Talk" and "Man-a-thon" events that have been taking place throughout the semester.

This Wagner Wedding Weekend celebration is a pretty much full-out mock wedding with two of the Resident Assistants from Coate Hall getting fake married. We are having bachelor/bachelorette parties tonight. Then on Saturday, the actual wedding ceremony is at 5pm with the dinner part of the reception to follow at 6:30pm. Then the dance will start at 8pm followed by an all-night wedding movie marathon. It is sure to be tons of fun and a lot of the students living in Coate sure are excited just like I am! We even have a wedding cake!!

Also, tonight there is a concert being held in Cartwright Center featuring the band "Nine Days" at 7pm. The cost for UW-L students is only $5. What a deal!! The Campus Activities Board brings a famous band or musical act to UW-L every semester. It is always a good time and they do a nice job of selecting performers! :)

*First SNOW*

Today the first official snow of this school year fell. There wasn't really any accumulation, so I'm not sure if you can really count it, but there were indeed snowflakes falling. Since the temperature was right around freezing, the flakes were big and wet. This made for an interesting experience riding my bike to class.

The seat of my bike was wet so I put a plastic grocery bag over it like I normally do after it is wet from being rained on. The handlebars were also wet so it was a little tricky to hang on and use my brakes. The biggest challenge (if that's what you could call it) was watching where I was going with all the snowflakes pelting my face and flying into my eyes. Oh well, I made it to class and back safely and I guess that's all that really matters. :)

Now, I just have a ton of studying to do this weekend. I have two tests to prepare for, a project paper to write, and a group research proposal to work on. So I have my work cut out for me!