The Start of the the Weekend... College-wise that is.

I have heard and read everywhere that Thursday is the official start of the weekend in college. I wonder how true that is? All I know is that I don't have class until 10 then to noon and I'm done. 10 may sound early but remember I've been waking up for 8 am classes all week. Speaking of classes...

It turns out that apparently there's been a bug with the email service that hasn't allowed a lot of students to get mail. It's wonderful that I find that out the night before I need something and no one can send it to me. Thankfully, I talked to my teacher and I hope she understood. I emailed her through my gmail and she sent me the link this afternoon. Since we're on the subject of Individual Health Fitness, I'd like to mention the lab today. We need to do some tests like the 12 minute walk run, curl ups, etc. I thought I did pretty well for the running until I checked online. It turns out I only did average, which is okay but I thought I would have done better!
Today I ran 1.36 miles for 12 minutes. It's good to do at least a little everyday right?

Ugh. I feel liked I've been punched in the ribs. That ab workout in Weight Training got to me!

Before I forget! Bi-mart night was wild! There were so many people there, it was insane! It was pretty much deals on things and free stuff, including this cute little guy!



Nothing relieves stress like a cute fat panda.



Do you ever have those moments where you know you messed up, but it's not so bad because everyone else messed up? That is exactly what happened in Literature of the Western World today. We had to write this mini essay due today, and these are some of the mistakes that happened...
"Wait, we NEED page numbers?"
"What do you mean it was MAXIMUM of 1 1/2 pages?" -(me)
"I thought our names needed to be on the left side."
"...I just didn't do it."
So we all made a mistake. Fortunately I don't think it was really a big deal. I hope.

My cousin Ali is coming to visit me tonight! It should be fun. She goes to school in Salem and we are both freshmen, so we try to stick together on what's current.

I would like to say one last thing before I end this entry. A few days ago I was getting my key out to unlock the stair area when one of my hall mates opened it for me.She said she was just going to use the elevator to go upstairs but I convinced her to walk up with me. Today I saw that same hall mate using the elevator to go downstairs. Now, I live on the 4th floor of my dorm. I understand that walking up four flights of stairs can be tiresome, but walking down the stairs isn't that difficult! It just kind of disappoints me to see that people can't make the effort to simply use the stairs even if it's only when going down. It's a little something that helps you be a teeny bit healthier every day.

So please you guys, use the stairs. Like my PE131 teacher quoted, "Health is our biggest wealth." So use it wisely!
Have a wonderful start to your college weekend!

Study, Study, Study.

Hello out there blogging world! How are all of you today?

Today has been quite a day. It's definitely not one of my better social days, that's for sure.

Walked down to Dutch Bros with Danyon before class today. I was so paranoid that I was going to be late for class, but it all turned out fine. I got the only coffee drink that I have enjoyed called a blended grasshopper.

I actually worked out in Weight Training today. It was good, but the very last thing we did kicked my butt.

After class I ran! I went to the fitness center and ran on the treadmill 2.74 miles for 30 minutes. That's not too bad! Okay, it's pretty slow. But I did run continuously!

Here's the rest of my day:

• Took a shower
• Watched Glee while filling out a sheet
• English Homework
• Dinner

That's been about it. Homework. Yes, I am boring. Everything's been fine today until now though. So apparently this guy in my history class asked something about did I get the email for PE 131? I had not. So I've been trying to figure it out and just now I found out that my WOU email account has a bug that won't allow me to receive emails. I have the class in 12 hours, and I'm freaking out. I hate when stupid B.S. like this happens. I emailed my professor through my Gmail and I seriously want her to reply back to it. Right now my mind can't think about anything else.

Now that my homework (other than that damn email thing) is all done for tomorrow, I'm going to go to this Bi-Mart night thing going on tonight. It just sucks, you know?

The Feeling of My Mind Overflowing

Hm. Odd title, but what are you gonna do?

Today has definately been a hectic day to say the least. I feel like I've been going and going all day, and it's not gonna stop until I go to bed.

This morning was a tired kind of morning. I woke up early automatically which was a good thing because it turns out I forgot to set my 7 alarm and set it for 7:20! Wouldn't have been horrible, but still. Classes!

Individual Health/Fitness
My GOSH this woman went through information way too quickly. It was a bit stressful.

Freshmen Year Experience
Now this is a ridiculous class. Seriously, it felt like I was in bucket list class. Perhaps it was from being sleepy that I was bored by this class, but it's ridiculous. Pretty much one of the assignments is what I'm doing with this blog, saying 28 things I want to do before I graduate college. What grade are we in again?

Literature of the Western World: Greco-Roman
This class seems interesting, but it's gonna be a tough one. There's a lot of reading and the teacher seems very particular though nice.

The homework is now beginning to pile up in the calendar. I'm on time as of now, but soon I'm gonna have to start buckling down and not get distracted. There are other factors that get in the way though...

Remember that tryout that I talked about? Well... I got a callback! That's the reason this entry is so late. Plus, I was busy ya know? Okay, the play. It was so exciting to get a callback. It was crazy though because there are some amazing talents here at WOU. How fun! I missed Glee unfortunately. It will be on Hulu tomorrow though!
Random things... I tried a tofu wrap today in Valsets. It wasn't shabby!



Delicious!

 Another cool thing, I received my first letter at college today! It was from my friend Diana who I haven't talked to in FOREVER. We were both really busy this summer.


Isn't the envelope cute! She's an artsy kid too.

 Well it's time for me to take a shower, rewrite my questions for History so the look nice, and probably go to bed. (Yeah, how cool of a college kid am I? I can't help it, I have to get up early in the morning!)

What is the most ridiculous class you've ever had in college? Did you party hard or study hard?

First Day of Class

So… after writing my entry last night, I went kind of crazy on food. It was terrible. I started eating a ton of these peanut butter chocolate eyeballs like there was no tomorrow. I’m pretty sure I know why I did it, for two reasons:

1. It was an internal mindset saying “Hey, you’ve gone down! It won’t matter if you go back up one pound.” It doesn’t matter, but with that type of eating/idea it’ll become much more than a little pound.
2. My body was out of wack. You know how I said I went to that pizza thing and there was no pizza?  I was starving once I finally ate, and even though I ate some top ramen (dinner of champs!) my body was still going crazy.

I know that no one really cares to hear that kind of stuff, but I thought I should just admit what I’d done.

Anywho, first day of school!
It's been a good day so far, even though I have homework already. Let's start out with this morning. I surprisingly woke up on time but I couldn't really sleep at all last night. I was so worried about waking up so I told my mom she should call me in the morning. She laughed at me and said I was ridiculous but she called me anyways. I love my mom.



Our RA left this note on our door this morning, how cute!


First class was History of U.S.!
History was actually quite interesting. She liked percentages and said "Good good" a lot. I have to read an excerpt and answer a question by Wednesday. I had to discuss points with a girl who sat behind me who was... not that bright in my opinion.

Weight Training
Weigh Training was odd simply because I went to get a syllabus and then the teacher says "Okay you can lift right now, but you can go if you want to." So... I got some information from him and left for the day. We'll start actually doing stuff next time.

And Introduction to Theatre Arts!
This class was fun. The teacher swears a lot and is pretty funny. I'm really excited for it. The only thing is that I have to read a play by Wednesday. It's a pretty quick read though.

After class I had lunch with my cousin Laci at Yangs. It was great! Laci is an alumni of WOU now, so she's really excited that I'm going here. We talked, hung out, and she bought some shirts.

You know that theatre thing I went to last night? Well I found out that they're having play tryouts tonight and I think I'm going to try it out! I'm nervous just because I don't know what college level people are like. I don't want to look stupid!
I also need to figure out when I'm going to run. I need to do that soon. Hope everyone has a lovely evening, and wish me luck tonight!

Starting School Again and Weighing In

I stayed the night at my cousins’ house last night and I never want to leave when I’m there. I know it’s not always like this, but whenever I’m at their house there is always a ton of delicious junk food. It’s too much! I know it’s just for celebrations, but it seems like we’re always celebrating ha. I love my family.
The more I’ve been talking about college the more I’ve been wondering just what I want to do. There are so many jobs that sound fantastic, but for now I’m not quite sure!


Actually I’m going to be a SUPERSTAR. So watch out.


Actually I’m going to be a SUPERSTAR. So watch out.
Speaking of Superstar, I went to this meeting thing for theater that someone told me about during orientation. I was expecting to eat pizza there, but there was none left. It was cool. I did get to know my Theatre teacher, so cool deal!
It’s funny, I almost have first day jitters. I feel a lot more excited than I think I should feel. I suppose it’s because I’m the type of person who always desires a fresh start of some kind. I want to shock and awe everyone. I want to show everyone just what I can do. Even though I don’t even know what that is yet.
After leaving my cousins I stopped by Fred Meyers and picked up a scale. It’s nothing fancy, it’s just a simple step on it and shows your weight scale. I know that I should of asked my mom to buy it for me, but I didn’t really want to let anyone know that I was buying it. I think there’s two reasons why I didn’t want to say anything:

1.  I wanted to feel the gratification of buying something for myself and
2. I think I felt a little embarrassed.

Let me explain. I didn’t want my family judging me, thinking, “Oh why does she need that? She’s too skinny as it is. She needs to stop worrying/freaking out about it.”
No, I’m not one of those people who weighs themselves everyday. I know that weight fluctuates daily, and I’m not obsessive. I just want to have a little help with monitoring the freshmen fifteen avoidance.


My scale’s name is Stanley


I try to weigh in on Sunday evening but I weighed myself last Saturday. My last weight was 129 lbs. Today’s weigh in was…

…Is that 128? Huh. It seems I have lost a pound, but that may be due to loss of muscle. Who knows! I guess it’s a good start though! Let’s keep on track!
I’m going to take a shower, then probably go to bed since I’m getting up at 7. Wish me luck!

Going Home (not exactly)

Saturday, Saturday. Ah, what a lovely day.

Today was a nice day weather wise. Woke up kind of late and went to the tailgater with Danyon. It was very uneventful. We went to the game... it was not a good game. Pretty sure we lost. Danyon, Sabrina, Katelyn and I tried to go to Yang's, but they're CLOSED on Saturdays and Sundays. What crap is that?

I drove up to Canby today for my cousin's birthday. I suppose that it's my going back home for the weekend, but not really. I'm staying the night here tonight. My room mate hasn't stayed in our dorms yet, I wonder if she'll sleep there tonight now that I'm not there?

As far as avoiding the freshmen fifteen, I did not do well on it today. Whenever I go over to my aunt's house, they have a ton of junk food. Thankfully, I'm not over here all of the time. (It's fun over here though!)

Mm... cake.

Where do you eat the worst at? What is your food weakness?

These Boots are Made for Walking

Hooray, it's the weekend. It doesn't seem much like the weekend though, ha.
Unfortunately, my boots are not made for walking. I got them especially for this year and they gave me HORRIBLE blisters yesterday! Boohoo. I only walked around in them for 20 minutes because they hurt so bad. I suppose I'll have to return them.

I slept in today! It was wonderful. You see, I've been getting up 8:30-8:45, and I woke up at 8 today but went back to sleep until 10:30. How nice. Too bad I'll be waking up for an 8am class this upcoming week.

I went to a session about traveling abroad today. It made me want to travel abroad even more than I wanted to before. It was funny because one of the students who traveled abroad talked about it and he mentioned how they drank all of the time. The head of it had to cut in and say how it's not all about partying. The main thing was that he sounded like he had such a fantastic time! He even met his fiancee when he was there, how sweet.

Perhaps I'll find a British man... Ha.

I did do a lot of walking today. I don't remember if I said this before but I had dinner with a random girl on the first day and I hung out with her and two of her hall mates today. They were really cool, and I hope I hang out with them more. We went to the Jensen Arctic Museum while exploring. It sounds weird, but it was interesting. There were some kind of freaky stuffed animals though.

I keep on having meals with this one group of people but I can't remember all of their names! I feel so bad!

I also walked in downtown Monmouth with Katelyn (my roommate) to see how long it would take to walk to Dutch Bros. I have an 8am class, I'll need caffeine!

Oh my gosh. Most awkward thing ever happened. I went to Bunco tonight and on the way started talking to someone. It ended up being someone who my mom wanted to be friends with because my mom and his dad worked together. Since my mom was acting weird about us being friends, I wasn't really in the mood to befriend him. But then I realized the name and... super awkward. I really don't want to deal with that.

Lastly, my skin is getting bad. I think it's these showers... how unpleasant.

I suppose that's all from me today.
Have you ever traveled abroad? Where did you go?

A Lazy Sort of Day During New Student Week

In my first few days, I’ve noticed something here. There is one guy who is everywhere. He talks to everyone, hangs with everyone, goes to every event. I know this must happen everywhere, but I have discovered our guy like that and his name is Rob. He just appears out of nowhere, and doesn’t have any main group. He is EVERYWHERE. Just a random thought I had.
Jumanji was fun last night. I didn’t realize I’d never really seen it, I’d only seen like 5 minutes before. There was also this racehorse thing which I was way too excited about after awhile. The crazy thing is, I almost didn’t want to stay when I couldn’t find anyone I knew out there. Instead of staying in like a sourpuss, I found some random people and sat with them. Isn’t it so much better when you make an effort to be social? You never know what you’ll miss out on.
We had an activities fair today that told us about things to do around campus. I signed up for a lot of things, but I’m not going to do everything. I just want info on it, you know?
Today has been a slow day. Everyone has become exhausted from all of the activities we’ve been doing and lack of sleep we’ve had.
I’ve written four letters, and I make some pretty sweet lookin’ letters. Check it out:

When I write letters, I write LEGIT letters.

I can't believe it's already Thursday night though.Where does the time go? I'm excited to start classes, but I know that it'll be tiresome. I can't help it!

I've noticed that my blog may seem a bit impersonal without a picture. The real reason I have not added a picture is due to the fact is I haven't found a good one! I'm picky, I know. I'll find a good one now.

What activites do you or did you do while in college? Did you have a guy you see everyone on your campus?

Writing to Say Hello

It may be hump day, but I seem to keep forgetting what day it is. I have to look at the calendar to make sure every five minutes. Anyways, hello!
Today has been one of those slow days. I’m secretly thankful because I’ve been way too busy to get anything done or space to let my brain breathe. I went to a session about clubs and intramurals this morning that taught me nothing. After that, two of my Hall mates and I found where our classes are. Right now I’m technically supposed to be in a mandatory presentation. I am just not in the mood for that right now. Perhaps I may seem bad to not go to it, but I didn’t want to be depressed by another speaker talking about something horrible that can happen. I understand that it’s important to know, but aren’t they supposed to make us excited for school. Besides, I’ve been getting stuff done. Like decorating my wall! (Shut up, it’s important…)

I am still at the age where I still enjoy receiving letters because I don’t get bills. Therefore, I’ve been trying to get addresses to write letters, and have already written one. I wrote it at 1 in the morning last night because that was the only time available to write. It’s pretty therapeutic.
I’ll try not to make this post too long, but I’d like to talk about how some of my goals are going:
2. Not Gain the Dreaded Freshmen Fifteen
Food-wise and exercise-wise things are seriously different. During the summer I ate a ton of little things during the day. Now I’m pretty much only eating the three meals a day thing. I’m trying to read my body signals, but it’s kind of hard. I haven’t gotten much exercise either. It’s been walking around campus and climbing up to my dorm on the 4th floor. I have been avoiding the dessert area, but my room is filled with temptation. My mom bought me a ton of candy for Halloween (already). We’ll see on Sunday!
6. Make Friends
We all know this can be difficult, but I’ve been trying! Currently I think the people I’ve gotten closest too are two of my hall mates and a guy from Landers. My two hall mates are from Wyoming and Hawaii, which is pretty cool. My guy friend from Landers is Andrew, and he’s fun. He’s going to be in my theatre class, so it should be fun.
I’m going to try to close my rambling here, so I can start writing some letters. The plans for tonight are a community meeting and Jumanji on a big drive in screen. Should be fun!
Do you guys like writing letters? Who do you write to?

Living in an Eco Community and Glee!

Hello everyone!

Let's start off this post with talk about my dorms. Ackerman is one of the only Platinum LEED buildings in Oregon. What this means is that the building is extremely eco-friendly. This includes lights that turn off automatically when no one is in the room, and the showers produce a low amount of water per minute. If you're someone like me, you enjoy extremely hot water and don't care if it's pounding on your back. All of the other dorms do this, but not ours. I've already taken two showers here so I think I'm used to it. It still stinks though.



 I went to a session about "What things are there to do in Monmouth" after getting ready for the day. I thought it would be a tour of the town or something, but it was very uninformative people talking about nearby fishing holes and Bi-mart. I don't care about Bi-Mart or fishing.
After that, there was a very cool speaker. He made me a bit inspired to look more into following my passions. The only issue with that is that I'm still not sure what my true passion is. I suppose that's what I'll try to find here.
Ate some lunch, hung out with people, and went to a time management session. I hoped that I was going to learn more helpful hints for organizing, but it was not helpful. Everything they talked about I had read in a book talking about how to prepare for college. Sad, I know.
The rest of the evening was basically decorating my room and socializing with random people in the dorms... until...

GLEE!



Yes, Glee premiered tonight. I'm not the biggest fan of Glee, but I am a fan of Glee. One of the people I've met in Landers invited me to watch Glee, and of course I said yes. It was fun watching it, but it was kind of funny because their RA was there and he was talking about events for the halls... Ackerman doesn't have any T.V.s in it which means no Glee here. Hopefully this will change.

The last thing that happened event-wise was the Late Night Comedian. WHAT A TERRIBLE SHOW. We seriously had to leave after awhile because he was so awful. I know that it's a horrible feeling to have someone leave, but it was offensive and disgusting.

And now we're here in the common room in my hall. I'm seriously trying to get this typed up and be social, but it's difficult. I feel like it'll be easier when class starts because I'll have times where I just have time for myself that other people have classes. Sometimes you need that.

I've seriously got to stop writing. Too much for the day. I hope everyone is having a good day.

The First Official College Post

Hello everyone! This is my FIRST official post from school. Hooray! I hate that I wasn't able to post a honest to goodness post the other day, but I was without internet until very recently! Where else would we begin other than Sunday morning?




All of my things, before moved into the car

 It was a sunny day when I was moving in for the most part. I knew that my secret hoping and praying had paid off. I had never realized just how stressful it would be to move in. I thought, "Oh, I'll make sure that everything is very organized so that it will be a breeze." This of course was not the case. It's difficult for a person to move in by themselves yet it is extremely difficult moving in with the help of others. If you're like me, you have ideas where things should go, how they should look. Your way. The rest of the world does not think this way.



The van, stuffed with college things

This brings me to the first thing I have learned in college:

• 1. You can't unpack all in one day.

I wanted to, I really did. I live in the mindset of getting tasks done as quickly as possible to have time for other things. What are you going to do? Somewhere in the day there was lunch at a cute little cafe, but unpacking basically lasted until 5ish. I'll try to summarize the rest of the day; Met the hallmates, did a "meet and greet" that involved running up to someone and yelling your name as you ran to the next person, and then went to a welcoming party. This is where it gets interesting.
You know how I said I wanted to get away from the people of my old school, meet new people? My roomate is from my hometown. The party was held by the older sister of another girl from my school. All I can say is that it wasn't for me. I wanted to go. I wanted to stay in my dorm my very first night of college. I don't care if I get a million days here, I just have something about sentimental dates and such. That's when I did something stupid. I walked home. I know, it's one of the dumbest things you can do. All alone at night where you don't know where you are, and it's raining. It was like a bad movie. This made me realize I need to try to shift away from doing things with my roomie all of the time. Do things my own way right? I ended up even hanging out with some hallmate in the common area for awhile too.

There's so many things to say, but so little space to say it! This week is beginning to feel like that too. I learned about media at WOU, met a friend from another hall, heard a few speakers including the real life hitch, went to a dance, then got to this point. ...That really doesn't explain much, does it? I dislike having to compress everything into blurbs, but this is what happens when you have two days of running around like mad with lack of sleep.

I will work on my blogging skills. Perhaps I need to keep notes of my days? Does anyone keep notes of their days for their blogs? I just need to remember to take pictures. It's so hard to remember!

Tomorrow's post will be more blog-y! I'm still learning. (Also, I'm going to delete that last post.)

Starting something new in more ways than one

It's always tough to start something new. Not knowing where to start is always the hardest part, when you can't decide what sounds good, and what sounds completely stupid. That brings us here.

That right there was a sad attempt at an introduction for my blog here. Hey, my name is Hannah and this is my newly created blog. A little information that you'll need to know about me is:

• I am an Oregonian girl who has gone to school with the same people for thirteen years.
• I am about to start my first year of college at Western Oregon University.
• I'm ready for something new.

I'm creating this blog around the theme of College life, but I don't want it to be just a blog about college. I will write about my life, and there will be a slight journal element to it. However! I am going to write about what I learn while in school, little facts that I think are useful, and other little college based info.
There are a few things that I hope to accomplish while in college. These things are:

• Get a degree (That's kind of a duh one, but it had to be said.)
• Not gain the dreaded Freshman Fifteen.
• Travel abroad during my Junior year of college
• Stay out of debt
• Keep my grades up
• Make friends
• Post a blog entry everyday

Will all of these things happen exactly how I plan them? I have no idea! No one knows what the future holds, and I am no exception to that rule. These are just things that I just want to happen.

1.Get a degree
This may seem pretty obvious since I am going to college, but I personally think it goes a bit deeper than that. Many people go to college and never finish. Right now, I'm not even sure what my major will be. At the moment I'm planning to have a double major in English and Spanish but I don't know for sure.

2. Not gain the dreaded Freshman Fifteen
People worry about weight all the time in our world today. Whether it's someone being aneorexic or growing obesity rates, we are always thinking about the size someone is. I've seen the rollercoaster of emotion from a scale going up and down, but not necessarily for me. I've seen how stressful changing sizes can be which is why I want to try to maintain my weight. I will try to make good choices and eat right. I also don't believe the freshmen fifteen is gained solely in the freshmen year. I think that it can happen at anytime, so this is more of a life rule: Try to maintain myself through good eating and excersize.

3. Travel abroad during my Junior year of college
I really hope I can do this, but I know I have to do some things to try and get there. I need to make sure to keep my grades up and save money. Sounds easy on paper, but life is funny. I would like to travel to Great Britain or Madrid. (I'm leaning more towards the U.K.)

4. Stay out of debt
Again, sounds nice on paper. Alas, I don't know what will happen even in one month. The best way to go about it is to spend wisely and budget as well as I possibly can.

5. Keep my grades up
I'm going to college only for an education, right? HA! It's not just about the classes and lectures, it's about a new step in your life. In high school my grades were average, and I've realized that I need to focus. This doesn't mean I plan on being a shut in who only studies though. Which brings us to...

6. Make friends
I've gone to school with the same people from K through 12. My friends are dear to me, but as we've all gotten older I've discovered that we have begun to drift apart. I have very different interests then my friends, and that's all I really have to say about it right now. I want to see what kinds of people are out in the "real" world.

7. Post a blog entry everyday
I'm going to start up this little habit on my unofficial first day of college, this Sunday. This is something I WANT to happen, but I don't know how that will work. For instance, what if I don't have internet? I can try for now. Even if it's a little post, it'll be something. I won't make the rest of my posts as long as this one either.

These are things that I hope my blog will help me follow. It's scary trying something new, but it's always better to try then spend your whole life wondering "What if?"

The last thing that I would like to mention in this daunting blog post is the name of this blog. For about a week, I was trying to think of a clever name. This is not an easy task for me. I am terrible at thinking of names. I tested out different song titles that I thought sounded witty that apparently others thought were witty as well, seeing as they were unavaliable. Finally this evening the perfect name clicked in my brain. I Read It In A Book Somewhere. This is basically my way of life. I am always trying to give wise information that I read in magazine articles, books, whatever I find. "I read in a magazine that you should eat near a window in the morning so your body reacts to the natural light of day" or "In my 'How to study for college book' it says you should spend 40 hours as a student".  See what I mean? It may sound silly to you, but it feels kind of special to me.

I hope that all of you who happen to read my blog enjoy it. Don't worry, this is going to be my longest post! (I think.) Now it's time for me to go to bed, even though they say you shouldn't go to bed right after using the computer. (See what I mean?) I'll see you all on Sunday!