Category: Campus Life

about campus

Inexpensive Hawkeye Apparel?

After attending the first three football games of the season and carefully reviewing Instagram posts from other Iowa students that I follow, I noticed a trend in Do It Yourself Hawkeye apparel. Girls all over Melrose and my Instagram feed would be wearing unique, creative variations of DIY-ed outfits by completely remodeling oversized t-shirts.

diy2In the spirit of wanting to look cute whenever I can, I decided to hop on this trend too. I also love crafting so it was a win-win. This Tuesday I stopped by Salvation Army to pick up really inexpensive Hawkeye t-shirts. I ended up finding two shirts for a total of 5 dollars. FIVE DOLLARS for inexpensive Hawkeye apparel. You probably didn’t think that existed, now did you? So even if I completely botched my t-shirts after cutting them up, I wouldn’t be out too much money (and even if you’re just looking for a place to find cheap Iowa clothes, taking some time to rummage through Salvation Army is a good idea).

For the first t-shirt I decided to just do a simple fringe cut on the bottom and this is what I came up with! Instructions on this top are in descriptions of the individual pictures below.

               diy4

For the next shirt, I decided to get a little fancy and make it into a cropped halter top. This one’s going to take a few more steps and if my pictures and tips don’t help very much, here’s the video I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33paDZboUV4

Like I said, if my pictures and tips weren’t very clear for the halter top, please refer to the video. And if the edges aren’t straight or the fringe pieces aren’t even, it’s totally cool! I feel like any crafted t-shirts, take tie dye for example, have more character if they’re a little messed up. Sorry for posting so late this week, I came down with a bit of a cold this weekend and it hasn’t been too fun. But you’ll hear more about that in the next post so get excited 😉

As always, please make sure to check out my personal blog for more content! www.freshhawk.wordpress.com

Views: Kinnick

This Saturday, I had the most fun at a football game I think I have ever had in my life. Growing up in a family of Iowa Hawkeye fans, going to games at Kinnick Stadium was a pretty special, and often a rare occurrence. Sometimes we’d even do a fun thing called “tailgating” in one of my parent’s friend’s RVs or in the back of someone’s car in a parking lot. However none of these experiences prepared me for what game day is like as a student.

Saturday’s game started up at 6:30, however, the tailgating festivities always begin bright and early. Tailgates are great places to get hyped for the game and fill up on as much free food as possible before entering the stadium. I met up with some of my closest friends from high school at a tailgate and we were all wearing glitter!

We knew that the stands would fill up more quickly than last week’s game, so we left tailgating early to arrive one hour before kickoff. Not without some touch-ups on lipstick, though.

There really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Next time, though, I think I’m going to make it my goal to get even closer to the field. The whole student section is first-come-first-served so why not be as close as possible!? However as long as you’ve got good company (and the Hawks are winning) the game will be fun no matter what.

Screaming at the top of my lungs, cheesing until my face hurt for the Smile-Cam, and dancing to any music that was played made for a great time with my friends. Then, as the sun descended, the cell phone flashlights rose. Needless to say, Kinnick was pretty lit.

By the time the game was over (and won) I was starving, exhausted, and ready to go to bed. I don’t recommend buying any food at the game because, in my opinion, it’s far too overpriced for the budget of a college student. And since you can’t bring in your own water bottles, I make sure to have enough money for that when I go because its always important to stay hydrated.

Being a Hawkeye fan is amazing, but being a Hawkeye fan in the student section is even better. We’re only into the second game of the season and I can’t wait for more!

Views

My first two-ish weeks of classes have actually been pretty great so far. The schedule I created for myself back at orientation is something that really works well for me and I’m so glad that I don’t feel as overwhelmed as I thought I would be.

First of all, I have an average of two classes every single day with multiple hours of free time in-between. I’ve never considered myself a morning person, so knowing this about myself really helped when planning my schedule. My Monday and Wednesdays don’t even start until 4:30 pm and that’s perfectly fine by me.

Another thing I made sure to think about when I was building my weekly routine was taking my interest in choir into consideration. I have a few choir friends from high school who also became involved in the programs here at Iowa so I asked one of them which choirs I could possibly be in. I then used this information in collaboration with my counselor to make specific gaps in time where two of the choirs could easily fit. This definitely gave me major brownie points for a good first impression when I had my audition and they asked to see my schedule.

I ended up getting placed in Women’s Chorale which meets every Tuesday and Thursday and I’m ecstatic! I’m so excited to be involved in a program in which I can meet girls who are just like me and I’m also glad that I’ve been given the opportunity to continue my passion for music and choir.

However, with choir being added to my schedule, Thursdays are now my “longest” days. On these days, I wake up around 7 am in order to be ready for my 8:30 Media and Society discussion class and steadily have something to do until 5:30 pm.

Now, to be honest, most of my high school days were like this. I’d be up early some parts of a semester for morning rehearsals then have more extracurricular activities until 6:oo at night. Plus my classes are actually intriguing and I’ve essentially got 3 extra long “study halls” in-between so this is obviously something I can handle.

With all of this being said, that allows for quite a bit of things to see, learn and experience during an average Thursday. This is what I saw today:

Although there’s a lot to see on Thursdays, that doesn’t mean every other day can’t be interesting. I’m going to make “Views” a weekly topic in addition to whatever else I blog about during the week to show what I’m actually seeing around Iowa City.

If you haven’t already checked out my personal blog, you should! I write about the same content that I post on here but it’s little more in depth including additional pictures and extra commentary. Below is the link to “Views” that I posted on there. Enjoy!

Views

Just Wing It

As I make my first K-Cup ever in my dorm room’s Kuerig this morning, a simple little three word quote runs through my mind.

“Just Wing It”- a motto I’ve recently obtained from one of my beloved coffee mugs. Not only can I apply this saying to my everyday makeup routine, but it also pretty accurately applies to my life at the moment.

After spending my (rather busy) weekend at On Iowa, I’ve noticed that my life as a student could go a million different directions with all of the opportunities this city has to offer.

And even though I’ve always had a pretty hard time putting myself out there, I’m just gonna have to put all my fears aside and “wing it”.

With a little push, however, making friends isn’t too difficult at all. So after going through On Iowa! with floor assigned groups through our LLC, I’ve started putting faces to the name tags on the doors. All of the group activities and ice breakers, no matter how tedious they were, actually really helped me get to know my neighbors better.

All of the mandatory meetings we had with our group also aided me in settling into a scheduled life again. I’m feeling 100x more acquainted with what college is going to be like and the excitement is real.

However, lets rewind back to move-in day. AKA the day my adventure in Iowa City truly began.

I moved into Currier on Wednesday, August 17. After hours, and even an extra visit from Dad the next day, my dorm room finally came together! Needless to say, it’s pretty cute.

 

Months prior to moving in, Celia and I planned a color scheme of pink, black, gold, and gray. This really helped when buying our bedding and the (completely necessary) decorations for our room.

I’m an avid DIY-er so including my own artwork an crafts in the room make this place feel more like home. I spray painted all of the jewelry and makeup organizers on or near my desk to match the theme. I also had to include the large canvas I painted last winter after deciding to go to Iowa, and the cute “C” & “R” paintings done by one of my closest friends, and fellow Hawkeye, Claire.

If there’s any advice I’d give to freshmen moving in next year, it’s to buy any and all Command Strips you can get your hands on because they will absolutely save your life. There are strong ones for holding up heavy items (AKA cork boards in need of support for necklaces), hooks for towels, and even double sided sticky tape that lets you hang up cool posters from the IMU poster fair.

I’m genuinely feeling pretty confident about most aspects of college after this weekend. The only thing that’s truly freaking me out is how hard it’s going to be for me to make friends and refrain from just hiding in my cozy room all day. However, I know that if I just go out and get involved with the things I love, I’ll meet like-minded people and making friends should be a breeze.

I can’t wait to make new connections with my future friends and through the ones I have now. Even though I’m nervous about meeting new people, I know that once I put myself out there and just “wing it” everything will fall into place.

Head over to my personal blog for more information and pictures of my dorm: freshhawk.wordpress.com