Andi

It has been an exciting past couple of days! One of my best friends, who is a year younger than me, has just finished up her orientation to officially become a Hawkeye! To say the least, I’m bursting at the seams. I love the University of Iowa SO MUCH, and the fact that one of my best friends from high school will be an undergraduate this coming year makes me even more ecstatic! I have to say I’m probably guilty of (heavily) influencing her to come, but I feel it was all genuine. I have a passion for Iowa and I feel like it has very few faults. I just absolutely love where I am, and I can’t wait to share it with her!

Another exciting aspect is that she will be participating in Sorority Recruitment this fall! Being in a sorority myself, and the fact that I love it dearly, I obviously fully support her decision to potentially go Greek! Again I’m probably guilty in influencing her decision,but ultimately the choice is hers. She can join a sorority she loves, or she can go through the recruitment process and simply decided that it’s not for her. Either way I’m still jumping with joy!

I love Iowa and everything is has to offer, and I can’t wait to help out my dear friend in anyway possible!

Yup, that’s me. I’m one of those kids who is way too organized and overly prepared for everything. But hey, I’m not complaining, I’m always well prepared for nearly any occasion. Some may think that my “over-organization” is just me being a neat freak…okay, well to be honest that’s probably true! But it’s just something I really enjoy doing! The possibilities are endless when it comes to ways you can organize your stuff, clothes, or anything really! I do think part of the blame has to come from my aspirations to become an interior designer. Part of the aesthetic to a room is how functional and organized things are! I personally feel like if the majority of the population looked at a messy room, and a neat, well organized one, almost all would say the clean room is the most appealing…

Sure, besides working this summer, the majority of my time is spent organizing, and RE-organizing my room…but hey, it’s what I love to do. Call it organization, interior design, or being a neat freak! It doesn’t matter to me. I love what I love, and it may not be the norm, but it sure doesn’t bother me!

Work. That dreaded word. The opposite of laziness and relaxation, but something quite necessary, especially when paying out-of-state tuition to attend UI. Luckily I was able to scoop up a job this summer, and was able to avoid the stress of a frantic job hunt. I will be working as a teacher’s aid for elementary special education children. Although I’m an Art/Entrepreneurship major with no interest in teaching, I still think it will be a great job to have and an awesome learning experience. My mom is a teacher and I’ve volunteered in her classroom before, so I know what to expect. Tomorrow is my first day, so hopefully all goes well!

In other news, I also acquired a different job! This semester I will be working on-campus as a Student Dining Associate in the Hillcrest Marketplace! I placed an application online a few days ago, and I got a call today offering me the job! It might be a little hectic now with classes, marching band, my sorority, and now a job on top of all that. But it will definitely be helpful to have an income during the school year so I don’t have to depend on the money I make during the summer! Although I won’t be making much, it is still a nice cushion to have. I’m anxious to add work to my hectic schedule, but I’m excited. So if you ever see me working down in the Marketplace don’t be afraid to say hello!

It’s been a couple weeks since I said goodbye to my freshmen year at Iowa. My dorm I called home in Iowa City, and all the amazing friends I made while I was there. And I’m not gonna lie, I really miss it.

I’m not one of those kids who had a ton of best friends in high school, and could not WAIT to be home for the summer. I’m the opposite. I have two friends left from my high school days. One who graduated with me, and another who is a senior this year and about to graduate. So now 90% of my friends are at Iowa, and none from my hometown. So it’s rough being apart from them during the summer because we all got so close this year. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to be home and see my family, but while living in Iowa City my friends and sorority sisters became a second family and I miss them so much. Luckily a few of them are Chicago ‘burb’ kids like myself, so I at least can see them a couple times this summer. But overall, I’m mostly alone.

It’s taken a lot of getting used to, not being on my own anymore, and frankly I’m still not settled into my old room. But I’m getting there, slowly but surely. But I have to say me and my friends are counting down the days until we return to Iowa, and as marching band members we’re mentally prepping ourselves to take on Hell Week.

I’m happy it’s summer, and there’s no homework, or papers to be written. But I miss Iowa City and my friends, it’s bitter-sweet being home.

Tonight is a bitter-sweet night. It’s the last night of my freshman year at the University of Iowa. I absolutely LOVE everything about Iowa, and I’m extremely happy to call it home. There is not a single doubt in my mind that I chose the perfect school for me.

Today was a day of mixed emotions. My closest friends either already left on Thursday, or left today. I personally finished finals Thursday morning, so for the past two days I’ve been running around campus frantically saying my goodbyes. I’m personally awful with goodbyes. I have a very difficult time letting go.

On Thursday my “Big Sister” or “Mom” in my sorority, Ayat, left that day, and we’ve grown so close this past year, it was definitely one of my toughest goodbyes this week. To say the least, I hugged her well over 20 times and was reluctant to let go, I even started crying (kinda pathetic I know, but I couldn’t help it… I’m a sap!) Luckily she is a fellow Chicago-burb kid and only lives about an hour away so I can see her at least a few times this summer!

My Big Sister

Today (Friday) was filled with the most goodbyes. I woke up at 8:00 and watched my roommate pack-up and leave, and once she was gone I bolted up to the 9th floor of Slater Hall (I live on the 7th floor, er…LIVED…) and went up to my “other half” Melissa’s room, who is a fellow Tenor Saxophone in the Hawkeye Marching Band. Her whole family was there helping her pack and then left us to say our goodbyes, and just like with Ayat I was a total sap. Luckily this time I managed to hold back the tears, but now that I’m writing this blog they’re starting to come full force.

The next goodbye was my other “other half” Alex who is an Alto Saxophone in the Hawkeye Marching Band. This was more of a brief goodbye because she still had a 3:00 exam to study for. Plus she will also be visiting my hometown for my birthday on Monday! Just like Ayat she only lives about 45 minutes to an hour away. But just like everyone else I probably gave her a few hundred hugs…

After that came the last two goodbyes of the day…Victoria who is also an Alto Saxophone in HMB, and Avery who was a piccolo in HMB but is now a fellow Tenor Saxophone for the upcoming school year! They both live on the same floor/wing of Burge so I helped them both pack up, and before I knew it I had to leave to catch a bus back to Slater, and it was again the time of a thousand hugs. I was able to keep it together he rest of the afternoon, but now writing this blog and reflecting on my day it’s starting to hit me that this is truly my last night in Iowa City…(well at least until next year).

HMB Friends

I’ve spent the rest of my day packing up my things and watching TV online. I will miss living on the West side of campus, because next year I’m due to live in my Sorority house. One thing I can’t say I’ll really miss is the dorm food…well except maybe the buffet aspect..haha. This year has been absolutely incredible. It was a little rough getting mono RIGHT at the end of the year, but I stuck through it and was still able to have a blast the last few days. I couldn’t ask for a better place, or a better group of friends. I’m grateful for every one of them and they truly make my Iowa Experience that. much. better.

I’m the type of person who rarely gets sick. In high school I had a near perfect attendance record, and still went to class even if I felt sick. These past few weeks have been quite the opposite. About 2 weeks ago I started to feel exhausted ALL the time, but I thought I was just being a busy-bee. I had band, Greek Week dance practices, 3 very long and important papers to write, lots of artwork to keep up with, and all sorts of other things. But a week later I still felt completely and utterly drained. So, against my will, my friends and parents made me go to Student Health because I’m the type of person who will just wait it out and keep chugging along with my regular activities. But regardless I still traveled over to Westlawn to give Student Health a visit. I described my “symptoms” and figured they would tell me everything was good to go, and boy was I WRONG.

The doctor explained to me that he wanted to run a couple of tests, so first he swabbed the back of my throat, and took some blood. A few minutes later he walks back in, and say “Well you don’t have strep, but you DO have mono.” I was quite surprised. I didn’t know anyone who had mono and I had never had it before, so I asked him how I got it. So in turn he asked me what I’ve been up to lately, I then proceeded to describe all the different activities I’ve been doing. My doctor then came to the conclusion that my body has simply shut down on me because I’ve been over-working myself (also hence the lack of blog posts). There are also no medicines available to treat mono so he basically told me to stay in bed all week, which for a busy-body like me is quite a feat.

So after another week and a half of being miserable and laying in bed day after day, my throat began to hurt, and it was becoming difficult to eat solid foods. So again I ventured back to Student Health, and lone-behold I also have Tonsilitis on top of already having an apparently severe case mono according to my doctor. They prescribed some new medicine, wrote me a medical excuse note to miss classes, and I went on my way. Lucky for me it’s the week right before finals, probably the worst time to miss class. A couple more days go by, and my throat is only becoming worse. One night I even woke up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe, and didn’t really eat that day because it was far too painful.

I then ventured back to Student Health for a third time. A THIRD time! I’m not the kind of person to really go to the doctor at all much less 3 times within a 2 and a half week period! The third time they gave me some different medication and REALLY emphasized on staying in bed, because to be honest I did venture out to class a couple times even though I wasn’t supposed to.

So that leaves me here, sitting alone in my room on a Friday night, too exhausted to even study, much less stay awake. I’m slowly starting to regain energy, although it’s not much. I’m nervous for finals because I’ve missed majority of my classes this week, and I’m just a paranoid person to begin with. Hopefully I can pull through finals, and go home to sleep the summer away until this mono and tonsilitis finally disappears!

These past two weeks have bee SUPER chaotic. Last week I had 2 major exams on the same day. This week I have 3 different papers to write. Along with that I’m in 2 dances for my sororities’ Greek Week performance and I have practices almost every night. I am just one big ball of stress! I’ve been meaning to write a blog for quite some time now, but I haven’t so this is just a quick little update to show that I’m still alive! But now its back to work for me to continue writing all those papers!

Spring Break has come and gone, but well, I’m glad to be back! Although being home was refreshing, I have to say I missed Iowa. I love it here so much, it’s truly become my home. I have a whole different family here and there’s so much to do! I have classes, my sorority, my friends, the list never ends! I feel like the possibilities in Iowa City are endless and I want to take advantage of them all!

Not to mention the BEAUTIFUL weather we’ve been having. The campus is looking so green, Tuesday night I simply just went for a walk. No specific destination, just simply taking the beautiful weather in. Walking along the river is almost breath-taking. I don’t think I could there is a more beautiful campus out there. This week will take some readjusting back into my schedule, but I’m glad to be back in my beautiful home of Iowa City!

I recently joined the University of Iowa Dance Club with one of my good friends. So far we’ve only had 2 practices, but I’m loving it. The club is open to anyone, boy or girl with any amount of dance experience. But honestly, majority of the club members have been dancing for years! I personally have very little dance background, but decided to join anyways! I just like to get my groove on and it’s also a great workout! The club offers a variety of dance routines, and you can participate in one or more. Having little dance experience I chose to only dance in one. And at the end of the semester a variety show will be held displaying all the routines. Different dance styles are also represented within the club. They include: tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop (which I’ll be dancing in). Coming from someone with little dance background I think UI Dance Club is a great club to join within the university. Although sometimes I may struggle to keep up, someone is always there to help me out and I can always practice on my own since the club only meets once a week in the fieldhouse. I encourage anyone to join whether you’ve been dancing since birth or just want to try something new!

Here’s the Pick One! website giving an overview of the club!

One thing I find college students do is to neglect THOROUGHLY cleaning their rooms. Of course they clean, put things back in their closet or drawers, but very few sweep their floor, vacuum the carpet, dust, etc.

I, personally, am a neat freak. Especially when I’m stressed. This week I have 2 different midterms coming up, and although I’ve be studying, my way of de-stressing is to clean, A LOT. To a lot of my friends, this fact is completely beyond weird. But hey, it has its benefits. My area of my dorm room and the shared areas are pretty much spotless. But on the downside, it takes me away from studying. Today is one of those cleaning spree days. Over 50 flashcards to study and know of images and their dates and cultures for my Asian Art and Culture class, is very intimidating to say the least. And now after successfully spilling my bottle of coke cleaning, I’m sitting here writing this blog and finding myself more stressed now.

In other non-stress related news, I recently joined the University of Iowa Dance Club! I have very little hip-hop dance experience, but I’m very excited to start. I’m also doing the club with one of my fellow Hawkeye Marching Band members, so I’m excited to get started! Today is our first meeting so wish me luck!