One of my passions, among many, is fighting for those who have had their voice silenced by slavery. I want people to know that slavery still exists. It just takes various forms (often unrecognizable to those who refuse to pay attention, or just don’t know about it) and occurs every day in places such as Japan AND the United States including Michigan and even Iowa. There are tons of different ways to get involved in re-abolishing slavery and raising awareness about all the modern forms that it takes. If any of you are interested in this topic, please hit me up. Secondly, I have a Facebook page dedicated to the awareness part of the Abolition Fight…if you would go and ‘like’ it and check it out every once in awhile I would really appreciate it. As an FYI the most recently post is about slavery in a karaoke bar, check it out if you find the time. http://www.facebook.com/IowaSAS?ref=ts

 

At the end of our season, we had a banquet. We gave out awards to sum up funny incidents and celebrate unique personalities and contributions to team atmosphere. We ate at Masala, a Vegetarian Indian Cuisine restaurant.

A couple of months back I decided that I wanted to run for the University of Iowa’s Student Government!

Lucky for me I had some friends who were willing to help me out and help me get started. Once I joined a party, the “I Party” and campaign dates began, I was in a whole new world. I met some new people along the way and said, “vote I party” more times than I think I have ever said my name in the past couple of years! Haha, I had a great time and went to a lot of really cool events. It was a good experience for me to publicly state what platform I agreed with the most and explain to people why that is. It was a great opportunity for me to learn how to better communicate just why I believed or thought a certain way. During this time frame, I spoke with a lot of my friends on what is important to them, and to say the least I received a lot of very interesting responses. 🙂

In the end I was elected as a senator for the 2012-2013 term  for UISG.

Even more recently, I was elected as Diversity Committee Chair. So basically, I now have a title that goes with what I like to do in my free time anyway.

I am excited for this upcoming year and I look forward to working with everyone on my committee and contributing to an even better University of Iowa  community and experience.

As for freshman, there are still spots open for freshmen senators, so if you’re interested please let me know!

Luckily for me I only have 3 finals.

I had every intention to begin studying for my finals a week before, however, that was really hard for me to do considering the following.

Starbucks Happy Hour

Lets face it… we need our caffeine and we need it CHEAP!

 

Sleeping Friends

Come to terms with the fact that even your coolest friends can’t hang until 5 am!

Nice Weather

The only thing negative about the beautiful weather at the end of a Spring Semester at college, is the sole fact that it is beautiful weather. Who in their right mind (and this is subject to anyone during finals week!) would want to be inside slaving away at practice problems inside a text book when the sun is shining? Not I! So make a promise to yourself. Say, “Self, You have to study your textbook (not FACEbook) for an hour and a half and then you can go out side and play a game of frisbee or sunbathe” It works. I promise 🙂

 

Animal Therapy

I am not for sure who came up with the idea to bring dogs into the Main Library and have them available to play with stressed students, but it is absolutely GENIUS! Sadie and Garbo and I became really close! If your school doesn’t bring the dogs to you, go volunteer at an animal shelter for an hour or two.

Mani/ Pedi

 

 

 

 

 

 

Retail Therapy

Not everyone can afford to do this, but it is a really nice break 🙂

 

 

Food

You can go out and treat yourself with a couple of your good friends, try to avoid talking about the tests you have around the corner for once and instead talk about your summer plans!

Or if your budget is tight like mine, you can go around campus seeking out all of the free food!

 

Massages

The CAB organization has provided all of the late night studiers an option to have a few minutes of AMAZING with professional masseurs.

If you study in the Iowa Memorial Union (like the rest of the world) it will be easy for you to relax and recuperate with a FREE massage every night of finals week in Hubbard Commons from 9:00pm-midnight. I go every night!

Jacuzzi/Swimming/ Steam Room

Rec Center Jacuzzi

Your membership to the the new Recreational Center is included in your tuition. What better time to put your bucks to your benefit?

Earlier this evening a couple of friends (from my dance team!) went to the Rec Center and had about a half hour of jacuzzi time and about 10 minutes in the steam room. We left feeling absolutely amazing and stress free. However, it does make you feel so soothed that you may want to go straight to bed. I highly recommend doing this at the end of your study day and since the hot tub is open from 6am until 10pm you have some time. 🙂

Lastly,

Dress Cute and Comfortable

You feel more confident when you feel well put together. 🙂 Dress for Success!

 

Lastly, Lastly, Lastly, in the height of all of this…don’t forget to study!

Good Luck!

 

Some of you may already know, but I have a crush on (arguably) the best Hawkeye Spirited athlete on campus——> HERKY.

As you can see…we finally had our moment together : )

Maybe one day we will surely go on  a date, where Herky can share with me all of it’s experiences and life stories as a lifetime Hawkeye!

Who doesn’t love a hard worker? Herky performs at 300+ Community Service events per year—BEAT THAT! 🙂

The Spring Festival!!! It’s the biggest holiday in China and many other Asian countries!

This year at the University of Iowa, I finally had the chance to learn more about this Chinese New Year that I have heard so much about.

AWESOME! Is the word I would use to describe it! Although what I experienced here was not even a fraction of what is actually done to celebrate this magnificent holiday in it’s homeland or in U.S.  metropolitan areas heavily populated with people of Asian decent, I still learned a lot and I had a nice introduction to the culture and traditions behind THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON! 🙂

Papa John’s Lunar New Year

Here is a picture of my friend Gisela hookin’ herself up with some Chinese dumplings and sauce! At the business building there were assorted Chinese dumplings, miso soup, and cute deep red envelopes. Earlier in the year I was dating a Chinese international student and he informed me of some of the traditions associated with the Lunar New Year. One thing that he said is that they eat dumplings as a good luck charm (or something like that), oranges are also seen as good fortune during the New Year.

CSSA Spring Festival Gala

A friend of mine asked me if my dance team, Iowa Andhi, would be interested in performing in front of 500 people. And of course I said Heck Yes! So, sure enough we were performing at the Chinese Student Scholars Association’s Spring Festival Gala. During this event both English and Chinese were spoken (Talk About Immersion!), people sang, danced, and did magic tricks.

My dance team was the first to perform,  and while we were upstairs in the Iowa Memorial Student Union rehearsing, I remembered that there was a concert about to go down on the 2nd floor. Soo… during water break I ran down to the second floor only to find the band still setting up. I shared with TBD that I had a performance tonight so I couldn’t come to the concert, but that only means that they must come back and they HAVE to take a picture with me for good luck!  They agreed! So here is my picture with Tim Be Told! ::))) #GEEKED!

• https://twitter.com/#!/timbetold
• http://www.facebook.com/timbetold
• Check out their music on their website http://www.timbetold.com/

 

 

There was also an event that I could not go to because I had class, but here is the brochure.

 

This upcoming Friday me and the girls will be performing at the Vietnamese Student Association’s Lunar New Year Celebration.

Here is the Facebook event! It should be awesome! 🙂

This semester was not my best semester as far as grades go. 🙁 I will share that right now, however, I did learn a lot about myself and my study habits.

Kyra’s Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t Study in your Dorm Room

I often say to myself, “Self, just go to your dorm so you can get your Japanese homework done there.”

That is a HUGE LIE. I usually get to my dorm, decide I am hungry, start cooking and then tell myself that I will start my homework after I get done cooking. In reality the only thing I end up doing after I eat is sleep. Which brings me to my next lesson…

Do Not Order Jimmy’s/Papa’s/Hut/or Pit Whenever You Feel Like it

This may seem like the obvious to you, but for whatever reason last semester, I ordered a meal (sometimes 2) every night and it used up a lot of my money! I ate pita pit and papa johns at least ten times a week!! The solution to this is, use your meal plans first, and come home at a decent time to cook dinner before going back out to study. One could also convince their friends that they are hungry too, so that they split the bill with you 😉

Do Stay Up and Get The Last Bit of Homework Done- BEFORE You Go To Bed

One too many times last semester I had just a little bit of homework left… just a little bit and I would put it off until the following morning. I did this, knowing my habit of BARELY waking up on time and hitting the snooze button like it was saving lives with every press. Lesson Learned… get it done BEFORE I go to bed… it’s not that hard.

Do Go Over Your Class Notes Every Night

I mean really Kyra, why do you write all of those notes during class, if you are never going to look at them again? Its a waste of paper!!! Look over all of your class notes every night, that will help you retain the information! DO IT !

Do Not Start on Your Homework at 11:00pm if it is due at Midnight!

Get it done before then, enough said.

Do make space in your daily schedule to study. 

All last semester, the only time I had available to study was after 8:00 pm. Although I am a night owl, this was only enough time to get my homework done and get to bed. Late at night just wasn’t the best STUDY time.

 

Well, there  you have it.

I will do some more reflecting and see what other things I need to keep on my forefront as the next semester begins.