First Term Duck

Hello Everyone!

Well, I believe that this is going to be my final blog post 🙁  but I will give you all plenty of updates from this week.

For Thanksgiving, I didn’t actually go home to Benicia, CA, which was a little hard because all of my friends were home from their schools.  I have a lot of family in Salem (grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin) and my parents drove up from Benicia so I spent it there.  It was very nice and I got to see my family, but I did miss being home and seeing my friends.

I actually got to see my parents last Saturday where I went to Salem with them for the night, and then my dad drove me back to Eugene  on Sunday and I went to classes until Wednesday.  It was cool to see them again and I really did miss them, but at the same time, I have gotten use to not having a parent around at lot of the time, so it was also a little different.

For most of Thanksgiving break I hung out with my family a lot.  I watched a lot of TV (as I have mentioned in previous blog post I have become addicted to Gilmore Girls), helped cook dinner, and watched football.  Thanksgiving was nice, and it was actually the first home cooked meal I have had in a long time.  It was nice to sit down to a big formal dinner and be reminded of everything that I am thankful for.   It is not something that I do often and now that I am off at college, I think is even more important.  I am definitely thankful to be here, to have a family to be surrounded with on Thanksgiving, great friends (at college and home) and so much more. I wouldn’t be who I am today without those things.

I also saw Mockingjay (it was really good, and I must say I do not remember the book at all) and went shopping.  I actually got up at 5 in the morning to go to Fred Meyer because they had an amazing sale on Bearpaw boots!  I also went to outlet mall stores in Woodburn(if you are reading this and haven’t been I highly recommend). The side effect, is however, that I now have to put all of that stuff away, which I haven’t done yet and am not looking forward to.  Watching the Civil War game was fun as about half of my family are Beaver Fans.  It was all good though because they totally expected the ducks to win.  There was even a point where the announcer was talking about how much of a chance the beavers had to upset the ducks and their chance at a national championship and my aunt just like “yeah no”.

Today I had to say goodbye again.  It was sad when it came to my grandparents, but I’m going home in about twelve days.  I’m excited go back home too.  As much as I love it here, its not the same and I am ready to see it all again.

As I am wrapping up this blog post, I must say that I have really enjoyed writing this blog post this term.  I think it nice when we are in such a new environment to be able to write down our thoughts.  I know I will enjoy looking back and being reminded of everything that I got to do my first term of college. It had definitely been a road full of fun and new experiences and one that I have loved.  I can’t wait to see what the future will bring.  Not to be cliche here, but I have a feeling it will be bright! As far as continuing this blog, I don’t know.  I liked writing it, but I have never been one to do things like this.  While it is easily my favorite assignment that I got to do this term, it was still something that I had to do, and is why I am not sure that I will continue it.  Once I got myself to write though, as you all know, I write way too much as I like to share my stories.  Maybe I will do an in between sort of thing, where I write down important  things that I did but not full blog.  Either way, we’ll see. 🙂

Other than this blog, I am excited to donate it to the University of Oregon Archives.  I think that that is really cool, and not something that a lot of people get to do.

Anyways, this has been a pleasure and till later,goodbye,

Amanda

P.S.  Happy Holidays!

Hey Everyone!

I can’t believe it is almost Thanksgiving and I am really excited for it!  I also get to see my family tomorrow as they will be up here for the entire week visiting my family in Salem – I get to see them tomorrow and then join them on Wednesday when I get out of classes. When I came up here, 9 weeks seemed like such a long time, but really it has gone by super fast, and that is a good thing because it shows how much I like it here.

Also, I got football tickets for the Colorado Boulder Game, making it so that I have gotten tickets to all four games.  They have all been on my computer. I have also gotten tickets three times for my friends on my computer.  Bottom line: I have decided my computer is lucky.

Last week I got to go to Columbia Sportswear Headquarters in Portland with the Warsaw Sports Business Club.  It was a really cool visit.  We got to hear from the CEO and the head of procurement.  We also got to go on a tour, and went shopping at the employee store.  I really enjoyed visiting the company and may look for an internship their in the future.

That was also the most productive part of my weekend.  On Saturday I basically watched football, and then played board games with my RA and friends for like four hours.  We played Risk and it ended up being really fun.  We kinda ended up getting really into it and at one of my friends threw dice, vehemently marched around the room all because we did nothing but take one little territory.  Other than that, I celebrated my friends birthday on Friday and went to Pride and Prejudice on Sunday.  I ended up skyping my friends for over an hour from home, and as great as that was, it did not help me get my homework done at all.

As the term winds up, the biggest thing that I have going on is my research paper.  I am writing it the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reform as they have become too financially demanding when it comes to countries trying to host an Olympic.  This actually has a lot of recent news as Oslo, Norway recently withdrew their bid.  They claimed that  the International Olympic Committee was demanding too many things like special privileges for IOC members.  This includes things like special parties and traffic lanes just for them.  In addition, the Olympics have just come to cost a lot of money, and the cost have steadily increases throughout the past few years.  Sochi, for example, recently spent 51 billion dollars to host their recent winter Olympics, the highest cost of an Olympics to date.

I could definitely write much more about this topic but I feel like that is a good summary of what is going on.  I am enjoying the research paper as in addition to everything that I have already read about the Olympics, I am reading things like the actual candidature procedure itself.   Why anyone needs to have read the actual candidature procedure I am not sure, but I find it very interesting.

The best part about this paper is that the topic is really interesting.  I have already liked many Olympic related things on Facebook.  Now those pages on Facebook are posting things about Olympic reform.  Basically, my research is getting handed to me and its great.  (It also really annoys my friend who is in the same class as she is have a much harder time finding sources).

That is all for now, maybe I’ll post part of my paper when it is done if anyone is ever interested.

Amanda

P.S.  Here is a photo of us celebrating my friend’s birthday!

Hello again!

For the first time ever, I am writing this blog post on a Thursday night.  That is because tomorrow I am going to Portland with the Warsaw Sports Business Club to visit the Columbia sportswear headquarters.  During the visit we will get to hear different speakers including the CEO, take a tour, and finish off the day at the employee store.  I am really looking forward to it, but to get back to my point, I will not be back in time to do this blog post tomorrow, when I usually write it, bring me to this moment right now.

This was the first week (week seven) that I have not had a test or paper due since week three.  This was a good thing, because I had a lot of other stuff to do, like catch up on some history reading from last week and start to figure out my classes for next term.  Figuring out my classes for next term has not exactly been an easy process. For starters, there is so many different things that I could take, and there is so many things that I want to take, so it is hard to narrow stuff down.  I tend to have decision issues when it comes to things like this because I want to do everything and it is probably my biggest problem.  On top of that, I am looking into entering  the business honors program next year.  My adviser has told me that that is something freshman don’t do because they don’t have enough of the pre-business administration classes taken. Today however, I received an invitation to the honors program and was told that you don’t have to have all of the classes taken.  They encourage any freshman with over 25 credits to apply, which I qualify for.  So next, week I am going to meet with the honors program to talk about a plan and make sure I am track with the right classes if I do decided that I want to do the program next year.

I can comfortably say that anytime I have had questions, needed support, or was confused I have had people to turn to here.  Just like in high school where I always had people to turn to, like friends and family, I have people to turn to here as well.  I think high school and here are very similar in that aspect.  Here I have friends to turn too, my family to talk to at home, and my really cool RA. My FIG (freshman interest group) assistant also really helped me this week with figuring out a question about what math class to take and how many credits as well. As far as asking for help here, thankfully I haven’t really had to do that yet.  I would say though, that if something comes up, I think that I will have just as easy time asking for help here as I did at home.

To talk about something cooler than stuff like classes, last weekend I got to explore Eugene pretty well.  On Saturday, two of my friends and I went to the Saturday market and looked at all the stuff there like jewelry and other stuff that vendors sell.  Then on Sunday, my friend and I went to Off the Waffle.  Off the Waffle is without a doubt the best waffle I have EVER eaten.  It kinda makes not want to eat waffles unless it is from Off the Waffle (I will probably break this but it sounds good right?).  I also went to the gym almost everyday this week and went to a pool off campus where I swam a mile.  Being back in the pool has me really looking forward to January when the pool in our rec center opens.  Finally, tonight my friends and I went to the Ducks After Dark movie 22 Jump Street.  I hadn’t seen it before, but really liked 21 Jump Street.  The two movies are very similar, but I will agree with my friend when I say that 22 Jump Street is funnier.

I should probably be going to sleep now, but I will most likely watch some TV before I go to bed.  My friend got me started on the show Gilmore Girls.

Anyways, until next week!

Amanda

 

 

Hey everyone!

This week has been a crazy week.  On Wednesday, I had a test and an essay due, both in my morning classes – so yeah, that was pretty fun.  I also had two club meetings this week, so I didn’t really get to see my friends much either. Hopefully this weekend will change that!

Last weekend, with Halloween and the game(which was awesome) it was hard to get to Sunday, concentrate, and be ready to take a test on Wednesday and turn in an essay.  But for Halloween, my friends and I all dressed up and took pictures.  I was a cowgirl, my friends were superman, the Tardis, and Aphrodite.   Then for the game on Saturday, I went with my three other friends, and then we got food afterwords.  Both of them were a lot of fun.

Then on Sunday, I had to write my entire history essay.  I also read a paper for my Ethnic Studies class, and wrote a rough draft of a cover letter.  I got it all done, but needless to say it wasn’t as much fun as Halloween and the game.

My Ethnic Studies test was actually not that bad and I think that I did pretty well.  I also think that my history essay went pretty well.  I emailed it to GTF ahead of time and he told me that it was pretty good, so I am pretty happy about that.  The best thing this week was that I got a 98% on my business midterm, when the class average was a 77%.

Its crazy to think  that we are this close to Thanksgiving, because that means that we are actually really close to the end of this term.  For Thanksgiving, I will be going to Salem to spend time with my family.  I guess that would be a tradition that I am upholding.  My family has gone to Salem for Thanksgiving for years now, so that is something that I am looking forward to.  Other than that, I can’t really think of any traditions that are no longer occurring since I have left for school.  There are definitely things that I miss like my friends, family, pets, and Sierras (where I would go a lot on the weekends), but I wouldn’t say that they are traditions.

As for here, I think something that is becoming a tradition is that my hall goes to brunch together on Saturday mornings at Barnhart.  I think it will turn into a tradition because I didn’t really like breakfast foods until I went to brunch, and now I do.  Also, Carson Late Night is like my favorite place to go.  On Wednesday night, a lot of people from our hall decided to go right as it closed and it was pretty fun.

This weekend will definitely be calmer than last weekend.  I found a place to go lap swim, so I am definitely planning on doing that.  Other than that, I will probably hang out with friends, watch some movies, and do homework.  I want to catch up, and keep ahead so that I am not swamped with work like I was this week.

Finally, I am starting to think about my class schedule for next year.  I know that I am going to take Econ 201 and I found a class on ancient sports that I really want to take, but other than that, I don’t really have anything set in stone yet.  I am meeting with my adviser on Tuesday, so that will definitely help with my decision making.

I attached some photos from last weekend for you guys to see.  The first one is photos from Halloween and then the other one is from the game. Oh, and there are probably some other ones that I just uploaded because I think that they are cool. Talk to you next week!

Amanda

 

Happy Halloween! Boy, this is going to be one crazy weekend!  There is Halloween tonight and the Stanford game tomorrow. Speaking of football games, I managed to get a football ticket again.  This will three times in a row that I have beaten the lottery system, and I don’t know how I do it (I’ve been asked that many times). Anyways, I am very excited for the game tomorrow, as my friends all got tickets too, so we will be able to go together.

After my class today at three, I will officially be halfway done with my first term of my freshman year!  School has actually been going well, I think I am doing better than I thought.  I mean, yes, I do spend a lot of time studying, but I thought I would have a much harder time trying to figure how I need to preform on test to do well, and so far that hasn’t been a problem (which I am very happy about).

I also really like all of my classes.  All but one of them are lecture classes. My first class is my Intro to Ethnic studies class.  I can truly say that I am learning so much in this class.  I always knew that race is a preconceived notion, but now I know so much more than that, with things like multiplicity and intersectionality.  I also just got my first grade on my test back and I got a 90%, which is great because our test was an online one, with short answer questions.  I have never taken a test like that before, so that gives me more confidence when we have another test next week.

My next class is my History 201 class, which is early American history.  I definitely know more of this subject than my Ethnic Studies class as I took it in high school, but I still really like it.  Our lecture on Tuesday was about witchery, specifically what happened in Salem, Massachusetts in the 17th century.  In my opinion, it was the coolest lecture we have had this term.  I have a paper due next Wednesday in this class about freedom, so I will definitely be working on that on Sunday!

Then, I have my Intro to Business class, which I actually had a midterm in yesterday.  I think it went pretty well too.  This is another really interesting class where I am learning a lot.  Every single class I have talked about so far, has been a lecture style class.  Overall, I would say that I don’t dislike lecture style classes as much as I thought I would.  Out of all of them though, I don’t like that the Intro to Business class is a lecture class the most.  I like the professor and everything, but the people in that class don’t seem to care that much, which is weird and ironic, because they are the ones getting the iClicker questions wrong.  To give some examples, there was a couple that kept kissing, and a girl that was looking up European soccer teams.  The class is only two times a week, do they really don’t have the time to pay attention?  On top of that, we always get out early too!(like about 20-30 minutes every time!)

My last class is not a discussion one, but more like a writing workshop type class.  The class is writing 123 and there are only about 15 people in the class, which is great, because it gives me a lot of time to talk and with the professor and ask questions.

My classes this term have made me think more about my classes for next term.  I am happy to know that I can learn and do well in lecture classes, but at the same time,  I really enjoy my writing class where there are not as many people.  When I choose my classes in about two weeks, I will definitely keep that in mind, but I will never not take a class for that reason.  I am meeting with an adviser in about a week so that will help me schedule classes as well!

Well, I am over the word limit and have to leave for class in about twenty minutes, so I should probably finish this week’s post up.  I will post some pictures from Halloween and the game next week.

Happy Halloween, Sco’ Ducks, and until then,

Amanda

Right when school first started, and we began to have homework, my friend joked “college gets in the way of our social lives” which is ironic because, without college we wouldn’t be here, making new friends and having a social life.  With midterms these past two weeks, I have definitely had to spend more time studying, and less time hanging out with friends (getting food, watching movies, etc.) but all in all it has still been a good week, and two midterms are behind me, only one more to go!

I already talked about my first midterm, which was for my history 201 class in last weeks post.  This week however, I got my grade back and it was an A!  I was very excited, I think that I smiled the whole way back to class.  The worst part was, however, that our GTF told us that he would give us our essays at the end of the discussion. I took part in the discussion, but basically the essay was all that was on my mind! History essays are one of my strong points and I guess I expected to do pretty well, but I wasn’t really expecting an A on my first college test ever especially considering the fact that in high school, I never did well on my first test in a class.

The midterm that I had this week was for my Ethnic Studies class.  It was an open note, and we did it from our personal computers in our dorms.  The true/false were a little tricky, but the fill-in-the-blank/guess the author questions were easy, and the short answers weren’t that bad, so I think I did pretty well.

The final midterm that I have next week is for my Intro to Business class.  I don’t expect it to be horrendous because I have been doing well on the quizzes, but I am still going to study for it a lot.  I think my study strategies will  be pretty similar to my previous midterms – I will go over the readings, notes, and for this class particularly, I will do some practice problems.  The study techniques that we practiced in my study sessions for history and ethnic studies (we went over and summarized all of the primary sources and readings) were definitely beneficial and something that I will try to do in the future.

Just because I had to spend time on midterms, they were not the only things that I did this week.  Last Saturday, my friend and I went to the football game!  It was much more fun than the Arizona game, mainly because they won!  The ducks are now ranked 6th again, so that is good news.  I am currently praying that my luck at the lottery system will work one more time so that I can go the game against Stanford.

I also went to the Warsaw Sports Business Club meeting this week.  The speaker was Leigh Steinberg – a very big sports agent.  It was really interesting how he got into the business (he met someone at UC Berkeley- where he attended school and then represented him for the NFL draft).  I think that his speech is a reminder that you have to start somewhere and if you keep working, you can get there.

Wish me luck on my last midterm!

For now,

Amanda

P.S.  I have attached some photos from last week.  The first one is from the game on Saturday.  The second is two of my friends and how we all match.  And finally, the third one is a pizza from Carson late night.   My friend never spends all of her meal points, so on Sunday she bought a whole pizza and we all had that for dinner!  To all the future students that may see this, Carson late night is one of the best places for food on campus and is my favorite!

 

Well, here I am, Friday morning, writing my blog post.  I think I have come to like this.  On Fridays, I don’t have class until three, so usually I wake up and write my blog.  This morning however, I got up earlier and went to the gym.  One of the weirdest adjustments for me is how to fit exercise in.   At home, I was on a year-round competitive swim team, so I was used to swimming over ten hours a week plus whatever other exercise I decided to do, like mountain biking.  I’m still getting exercise here, its just not as much, and I am hoping not to get too out of shape, so I added that in this morning.

Now that things are getting more settled in, I have started to decided on different on campus activities and events to participate in.  But before that, I made it through my first college midterm!  It was in my history 201 class, which is early/colonial American history.  It really wasn’t that bad, and I was in AP US History so the concept of writing an essay was not new to me.  I high school, I only got 35-40 minutes to write an essay, and here I got an hour and twenty, so I loved the extra time and I think it took away all of the pressure.  I also made myself forget that the essay was worth 20% of my grade and that helped a lot too.  In addition to my midterm, I also had a couple other assignments due this week, so yeah, this week was pretty busy.  In addition to this blog, I also have to finish research proposal by my writing class today and do a rehearsal tutorial for business simulation in my intro to business class.  I definitely have my work ahead of me, but I am very excited for this weekend, and the football game!

Speaking of football games, I managed to get a student ticket again!  My friends and I went off campus again, too find wifi.  I think it was a good idea because the system was really crazy.  Once I got my ticket, I even managed to get my friend one too before they were sold out.

I also found my ideal internship, only I am too young.  The internship is for the United States Olympic Committee, specifically under the USA National Swim Team.  The internship involves different aspect of administration and assisting in the team.  It is something that looks really cool and I would love to get into that kind of work.  I have to be a junior or senior in standing, but because of my credits I may be able to try for something like that next year!

I found out about the internship through the Warsaw sports business club.  I get information about internships around two to three times a week and this was one of them.  The Warsaw sports business club is a really great club to join for the connections, and I get to learn some really cool things about different businesses through sports as well.

The biggest on campus event that I did this week was hike to the “O”.  The weather was great and the view was awesome.  My friend , Alyssa, and I even joined with other students to help paint it.  It was really cool, and I am very glad that we decided to go and have that experience.  (Also, I got a great view of Spencer’s Butte and I know that it is something that I need to hike)

This week is also homecoming week.  It has been really interesting to learn all about the different events that are happening.  We also went to the street fair!  It was really crowded, and there were a lot of people speaking different languages, which made me feel like I was in a different country for a little bit.  Before we left, my friend and I split an elephant ear.  It was so good!

That is all for now, I need to finish my other homework, or I will be stuck in my dorm room tonight finishing my business rehearsal tutorial.

For now,

Amanda

P.S.  I attached some pictures of the hike to the “O”.  I probably should have remembered to take some pictures of the street fair, so I may have to go back today to get some!

 

Hello Again!

Well, that week definitely went by quickly! (at least in my opinion).  It was another week filled with a lot of adventure, friends, and the homework wasn’t even too bad.

This week I went to three club meetings! (I’m pretty sure there’s more that I could join too, I will just have to find the time for them). The first one was an informational meeting for swim team/club that starts in January.  At home, I have been on a year-round swim team for more than five years now.  I love to be in the water no matter what temperature, so I am excited to get back in the water next term.  It is definitely something that I miss.  I also went to the International Business and Economics club meeting this week.  This club seems really interesting, does a lot of site visits, and I really think I could learn a lot from it.  Finally, I went to the Warsaw sports club meeting this week.  This meeting was extremely crowded, and a lot of us were standing.  I am excited for this club as I know that it will give me a jump start to internships and a great connection for the future.  I am also really excited about their site visits this year, and I hope that I will be able to go along to one of them.

I have made some really great friends so far.  They are fun, have a lot of energy, and we have already had some great adventures! For me, social life in college is much different than high school.  In high school I hung out with my friends during the school day, and then went to sports practice after school, followed by homework.  Here I hang out with friends much more, especially when we all go to dinner, to the gym, or shopping together.  Making friends really hasn’t been that hard either.  I was a little worried about that before I got here, as I have had the same friends since kindergarten and making friends wasn’t something that I have really had to do.  Just as all friends told me however, it really isn’t a big deal and making friends is rather easy!

I try to balance academics with socializing by trying to get most of my homework done in between classes.  The way my schedule works, I have about a four hour break in the middle of the day everyday.  It allows a lot of homework time and when I sit down to do the work, I really am quite productive. The best part of my schedule however, it the fact that I don’t have a class until three on Friday.  I love the free/homework time it gives me!

Speaking of academics, next week I have my first college test.  I even had to go buy the green examination booklet for 25 cents-it really made me feel like I am in college now!  I am not that worried for the test, as it is for my early U.S. History class and I took AP US History in high school, but it is still something I am going to need to study for next week.

Saturday, the ducks take on UCLA.  I am a little nervous for the game, and I now that we will all be watching anxiously.  Finally, I am looking forward to Sunday, as some of my friends are joining my FIG as we hike to the “O”.  I excited to get out hiking again as it is something I love to do, and seeing another part of University of Oregon life.

Until next week and Go Ducks!

 

Amanda

 

 

Hey everyone!

Well, my first week of college is officially over!  I survived, had fun, and met a lot of great people.  Now, I am settling back into the routine of going to school everyday, having homework to complete, and test to study for.

I don’t truly think that anyone can completely know what to expect when they move into a resident hall or onto campus for the first time.  Sure, I had watched all of my friends go to school in August and had learned about their experiences, but not one experience is the same.  My experience has been great so far, and I’ll start with move-in day.

For the most part, I was excited for move-in day. I drove up from Benicia, CA (a small town near Napa) the day before and like every other duck heading north, stopped at my last In-n-Out Burger in Redding. When I arrived on campus, I checked in and my parents and I moved the car to the unloading zone.  The Unpack the Quack People helped, and I was done in four trips.  Living in Global Scholars hall has been really fun, and I am loving it so far.  Everyone on my floor is really nice,wants to hang out, and we leave our doors open as much as possible.  I think this helps with the fact that our dorm is bigger than other dorms, and gives it a more homey feel.  I would say my favorite part of resident hall life is the friends and going to get food with them.  At the same time however, its also the hardest when you want to socialize, but have to study.

When classes started on Monday, I was excited.  I liked my schedule (I only have a few early classes) and was ready to see what college classes would be like.  It took about a day, however, to remember that we are on the quarter system and that you really hit the ground running.  With that said, I learned quickly that you need to stay ahead of the work, and then you’ll be just fine.  My favorite classes so far would probably be my two FIG classes, Intro to Ethnic Studies, and History 201 (early colonialism).  I think that both professors are interesting.  I love the things that my history professor talks about.  He makes the most interesting connections in history like the consequences on the land bridge and Beringia.  My other classes are writing 123 and intro to business.  Intro to business doesn’t seem like it will be too bad, and the simulation that we are doing seems really interesting.

If I had to think of my biggest challenge for the week, it would probably figuring out a way to balance my life.  In high school, it was always so easy.  I had school everyday until three (the same classes everyday too), then swim practice, and then finally homework until I went to bed.  Now, there are clubs that I want to join, friends that I hang out and eat with every single day, and homework that I need to plan when to do, as I have those classes on some days and not the others.  For example, in my history class, I need to have all of the reading done by Tuesday.  After that, I don’t really have classwork for the rest of the week.

This has definitely been a great week.  The best things were the football game and then trying to get tickets for the football game.  Those two events really made me feel like a duck and part of the school.  Those activities were so full of spirit and energy, and even though we lost the football game against Arizona, all of the students stood by and watched the game until the very end.  That was my favorite part and it makes so so excited to continue to try and go to duck games.

For now,

Amanda

 

P.S.  Here are some photos of sporting events-my favorite! The one on the top left is from the volleyball game, and the other two are from the football game!  Go ducks!