Orchesis Weekend!

One more week in March and the snow is staying strong! I was ready to put my winter jackets and ski gear away, but quickly found out winter was not over. For the most part the weather is trying to warm up. This past week campus looked like a winter wonderland. Although Spring athletic games were canceled it did look very pretty!

Tonight is our last performance of Orchesis, a club on campus that puts on a dance production for the Encore program. Sadly this will be my last one. We have had good times! I am in three numbers. My favorite is called the Garden. It is a very popular song used for a more modern dance group, but we also have black tutus which make it that much cooler! The last few nights the shows have gone really well. It is funny how on certain nights the crowd's volume can vary. Thursday night the audience was mostly students, so there was a lot of cheering. Friday night is usually more upper classmen and administrators, and tonight is mostly a family night! (quieter setting)

Yes, my parents still drive down for the performances. You are never to old to dance for your parents! :) In preparation for them I did all my laundry because I know my mother would offer if it wasn't done, and there is no way I would want her to do that! I did clean my room too! I am very excited to see them!

Tomorrow I will be up bright and early to Coach the Southern Tier Volleyball Club 18's girls at a day Tournament at Broome Community College. First games at 9am!!! Wish us luck!

Term II Senior Year

Let me fill you in! Break between first and second term was good. We went back to school early for RA training, so it was nice to get settled in before everyone started to come back. New term means new classes, so new books and materials were on high priority. Soon enough classes began!

Ceramics has been great to take. Its a step outside from my usual classes where I can be creative and make an extreme mess. We have a good time and who knew so much had to go into making a cup. So far we've made rock pots, pinch pots, little boxes, the 'perfect' cup, the 'perfect' bowl, zen like little things, and moving onto making cups from throwing. I will need to post some of those pictures.

Physics is physics, gravity is still the same no change there, but I do find circuits much more interesting than physics I. Biology of cancer has been so interesting and mind boggling at the same time. A few times we walk out of class a little confused about life and the bodies regulatory processes, but the end result is we've already learned a great deal more about the disease. Independent study in Comprehensive Sports Medicine has been enlightening as well. Part of the class requires 150 hours of experience working with student athletes on treatments, evaluation, etc. I could not ask for a better way to learn than hands on with the ATC's. To keep up with my anatomy I am a teaching fellow for the Anatomy and Physiology lab. So this will be my third time working with the cats, averaging out to be a yearly experience.

Aside from school the club volleyball team I am co-coaching is doing well. The girls are great to coach and full of spunk. The next tournament is the first weekend in March I am very excited to see there progress and talent to work!

People have already started the questions for next year... real world or back to school?! When I say real world I am not referring to MTV's real world tv series. I've been applying to graduate schools for doctorate in physical therapy programs and apply to graduate entry level in Athletic Training. I've come to the realization as simple as this may be that life and school is what you make of it. Yes I know it seems very first grade, but it's true. It's up to you to try your best, create your own aspirations, and in the end everything will work out. Trival, but very real. So take all opportunities thrown your way in stride and have fun while doing them!

Off to get some work done ! Ciao!

Graduation year is almost here!!

Happy Holidays to everyone!


Here are some photos from the Holiday Banquet!










Term I finished well, hard work does pay off. Sleeping pays off too from what I learned from experience. So it was finals week and the night before my last final, and all I had to do was study for one more night. After my Comparative Final that evening I went to dinner where my friends and I exchanged our gifts and went back to my room to attempt to study. Christmas movies were on TV and I decided just to watch one to relax while studying. Next thing I knew it was 7:00am the next morning and my exam was in 2 hours. I woke up with the pencil still in my hand and books right on top of me...I hadn't moved in over 9 hours!! With realizing what time it was I got ready for the day and crammed. In the end I received one of my highest test grades in that class on the that final, so sleeping sometimes really is better than staying up late to study! I'm just glad I woke up in time!

The next day I made my way home with a stop at my Nonna's house. As soon as I entered my Nonna's house they were just sitting down to eat some home made linguini. It was epic timing. After dinner we ate some traditional Italian cookies my cousin and my cousin's wife made with my Nonna. They were delicious: filled with fig spread/raisins and topped with icing. Stuffed from the meal we decorated some more cookies and I drove home. Once home I caught up on sleep! It was great! Surprisingly there was very little snow in Elmira, so when I got home to the snow covered ground I was very excited. For one week I helped prepare things for the holidays and visited with my family. My Mom decided that I worked myself to be given the name "little elf" just to give you an idea of what I had been up to, although my brother says I am much to tall. Oh well...guess I'll have to choose another profession.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my house with as many fish to eat as we could, not all seven, but we did pretty well. I did cut the calamari (squid) for the sauce a little large, but it went over really well! The next day we made it to two more houses, ate a ton and opened a few gifts. My little cousin Adam was the cutest. He is 3 years old and loves cars. Kids have the coolest toys these days. One of his gifts was a little couch that turns into a bed with a sleeping bag, Cars (Disney movie) logo on it of course.

It is nice to be home to spend time with family and friends! Although I do miss my friends from school I plan on meeting up with a few of them on a little road trip and with some who graduated a few years ago! Aside from all that I felt motivated today to purchase my texts books online for Term II. It's hard to believe this will be my last time buying books for school at Elmira! Yikes...where does the time go! Ciao!

Turkey!

Hi there! Two weeks of classes and one week of exams are left to finish off Term 1. It is crazy to think how fast this term is flying by! Slow down! Although we say two weeks of classes what we really mean to say is..."it's time to get all those projects, labs, and experiments done that you were given in the beginning of the term." Crunch time!

Everyone is making their way back to campus from Thanksgiving break and looking forward to the weekend traditions, Holiday Banquet and Ball. The seniors are looking forward to decorating the tree and living up their last Holiday Ball!

Thanksgiving break was great! The first weekend I came home to sixty people at my house in celebration of my brother's recent engagement. It was wonderful to meet my brother's fiance's family! We are very excited for the wedding planning to begin too! Then there was Thanksgiving Eve where we of course had to get everyone together and make our way downtown. As we migrated towards East Ave the cover charges kept increasing! It was crazy one place was charging a twenty dollar cover. We ended up hearing two really good bands, one of my friends brother's played in the band and the other band we just happened to catch. Three of my EC friends came out that night with my other friends and I. It was great to have everyone together! Two of my friends from EC celebrated Thanksgiving with me as well at my Aunt's house, it was just as if they were born right into the family! Next on the agenda was a surprise party for my parent's 25th anniversary party. Almost everyone in both their wedding parties could attend. So it was the day of the party and everything was in place...guests all arrived, all the food ready, and a reason for my parents to get to the lodge. Mind you they thought I had already gone back to school and they were suppose to be attending my little cousins 16th surprise party at 3:30pm. So 3:30pm rolls around and we call them...it ends up my dad decided he wanted to be a car mechanic and work on the car. Long story short we got them to the lodge and had my cousin at the door, since they knew they had 'supposedly' already missed Greg's surprise they both walked in and said surprise. And in return they received more surprises. It took them a little while to realize that it was in fact a surprise for them! But we all got them! The night was filled with memories, laughs, lots of food, and even of course Italian cookies!! I will post pictures soon!

So my Mother had to say goodbye again, this time for real! I did reassure her though that I would be home within a few weeks. Monday morning traffic back to school was not to much fun on 390, but I got to my first class in time with a pleasant surprise. The lab report I was stressing about was not due for another week! It is a good feeling!! Okay time to get some work done! Ciao!

One door closes while another one opens!

So it's November already! Which means that our volleyball season has come to an end, and for me participating first hand in varsity college athletics. Although we did not get a bid to go to the NCAA Tournament we were ranked number one for the ECAC Tournament and hosted it at home this past weekend. We came in second place. The last game was very entertaining and a good match. Our season was very successful where we were ranked regionally number five and number two in the Empire 8. I can not wait to see what the team can do next year, more success is on its way. A lot of my team mates were awarded many wonderful honors to show for a great season as well. It is always nice to have such a strong team, but even better to have strong friendships with one another. Good thing we have the rest of the year to hang out!! As soon as volleyball ends I will be spending my time with the basketball team for their sports medicine needs, so no worries I will still find my way to the gym.

Last week we registered for our classes for next term. It is crazy to think I only have one more term to register for. I am taking biology of cancer, kinesiology, introduction to geography (it's never too late to learn the world), ceramics. and physics II. I am extremely excited for bio of cancer and kinesiology, along with ceramics. I know I probably sound like a nerd, but it's okay.

Other than that school is going good. I spend my free time in lab with dead animals for comparative anatomy, don't worry they all have names. Aside from lab this week is our Orchesis Club show and last week before Thanksgiving break! I can not wait to sit back, eat lots of food, see friends/family, and find time to do work. Over break my brother who recently got engaged is having an engagement party! Well actually my Mom being a wonderful planner and hostess in planning the party for them and of course my Dad is helping too. It is very exciting! I will have to post pictures! Two more exams, two labs, and one quiz away from break!

October !!

Happy October!

Where to begin...right now I am away with the volleyball team for our tournament at Hunter. Last night was our senior night and wow does time fly. I feel like I just arrived at EC for preseason volleyball and meeting my team. We have had so much fun and plan on having a few more weeks too! We are going to the Empire 8 tournament next weekend to play Nazareth and then we plan on much more too. It has been a wonderful seasons of road trips, fun games, and awesome supporters. The above picture is from our Halloween doubles tournament. Its our latest tradition to have teams picked at random, find a costume with your partner, and play tournament style during practice. My teammate and I decided to be grapes. It was a riot trying to get out of the dorm and into the gym, along with trying to put on a back pack with all the balloons on us. We looked good as green and purple grapes, but let me tell you it was not the best idea for playing volleyball. Safety pins plus sprawling is not a good idea, so we ended up in last place. Some of the other costumes were Matilda and Ms. Trenchable, Dr. Evil and Mini me, ghosts, Wayne's World, characters from the hang over, cows, and nerds. The cows won!! It was quiet entertaining trying to watch the ghosts play too.

This picture is from last weekend after our conference wins...we tested out these wash off mustache tattoos. It was too funny!

The above two photos are from Parent's Weekend. We had such a great time. There were so many activities going on. We went to Quarry Farm tour at dusk and it was beautiful! Of course we had to travel to one of the bars that everyone goes to with all our parents. The next day we had our parents versus volleyball players game. As you can see I was matched up against my dad at the net. He did have a block on me, but I'm okay with it. The dinner dance and Dr. Meier's house was really nice too to spend time with our families and class members. After putting out parents to bed we went out! It was a great weekend!

Well time for bed we play early tomorrow! Ciao!

2-0-1-1 We're the class that's almost done!

Senior year is here! I can not believe how fast the past three years have gone by.

Last time I blogged I was starting my next internship and summer was still around. So, I'll fill you in. The rest of summer was great. I learned a ton of useful information from both my internships. Although I did want to visit more graduate schools and spend more time with my family it was still a wonderful summer (including two weddings)!

Back to Elmira...for sports medicine training we broke right into our work and did all our certifications within the first few days. The same for resident assistant training. I am excited to say that my building staff won the RA challenge this year! Speaking of which I am living in Tompkins hall and loving it. My residents are great and some of my closest friends have decided the Tompkins environment is for them. The wood floors and trim in the room definitely make everyone feel at home. During training for orientation we started preseason for volleyball.

My new teammates bring a lot of talent to the court and really good laughs. So far in the season we have really succeeded having won our home tournament, a big win against Steven's Tech, and this past weekend the tournament at Oneonta State. We are working well together to accomplish our goals, and having a blast doing so! Since we play weekend tournaments we get to spend much quality time together snuggling on the bus, bouncing on the hotel beds, making sandwiches, doing work, playing buffalo tag, celebrating, family dinners at coaches, and most importantly laughing. We certainly have a lot of character on the team :) .

Aside from volleyball classes are going well. I recently began dissecting another cat, this time it is for comparative anatomy class. My lab partner and I decided to name our cat Jose'. And yes we did choose a cat that looked nothing like either of our cats at home. So far we have been looking at the muscular skeleton and of course comparing it with other vertebrates. Cats are not the only exciting moments in class. For plant ecology we have been taking field trips for lab to the USDA Material Plant and a Professor's wooded land. Along the way I have learned how to distinguish trees, plants, and calculated various species diversity in the surveyed area. Along the way I saw my first ever salamander and a ton of spiders!! Eventually the spiders didn't bother our lab and we were walking right over or past them. So far we have had wonderful weather and even had the chance to venture on the bank of the Chemung River on a sunny day.

My yoga class is great because it keeps me calm and relaxed. Even sometimes too relaxed where I have fallen asleep on the mat. Opps!! Along with yoga I am taking Evolution where we did a candy lab to figure out phylogeny of candy. Trust me it sounds delicious, but seriously hurt our brains leaving that class. Child Psychology is another class I am taking, which is something new for me and really quiet interesting.

Okay so classes rested aside everything is going great on campus. My friends who live in the new dormitory absolutely love all the space. Mountain Day and Octagon Fair were fantastic as well.

Alright, just thought I would catch you up real fast. I will have to give more details about Mountain Day and Octagon Fair next time!