My Local Study Haunts on Campus

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Hey y’all!

I get this question a lot from prospective students: where are my favorite places to study?

Here are a few of my favorite places:

  1. Wild Bills: A former coffee shop turned into study lounge, it has sunny windows and offers a nice view while doing work. Located on the third floor of North Hall, this is an underrated place.
  2. IMU window seats: On the second floor of the IMU, there a huge glass windows facing the street and Pentacrest. The chairs are cushy with attached tables so I can easily set a laptop down and people watch. Some of my best stories have been created while sitting here, so writers, consider!
  3. IMU Patio: On nice days, I love sitting by the river and watching people walk around while getting a nice tan.
  4. Currier lounge/courtyard: Currier Residence Hall is for anyone to study one! their ground floor has a very aesthetic study location and an outdoor courtyard with benches.
  5. Voxman Music Library: This place is gorgeous and totally worth the walk.
  6. It is technically in downtown Iowa City, but a five minute walk from the east side residence halls, so I count it! Midnight Coffee is a fun coffee shop to study in. They have delicious seasonal matcha and gluten free baked goods.
Rose Matcha from Midnight!

Here are just a few of my current favorite places, but there are so many to discover!

-Solenn

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First Week of Spring Semester!

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Hello all!

This was the first week back (and my last semester of college ever, wow!)

Here’s a breakdown of my schedule:

Monday: Writing and Reading Fantasy Fiction (MLK Day meant I have not yet attended)

Tuesday/Thursday

  • Business of Media: Lots of group work, participation. Very interesting so far, we’ve talked extensively about the Warner Bros and Netflix deal. Since I want to work in media/entertainment, this is very important knowledge!
  • Business French: With my favorite professor ever, Madame Sohair! We are talking about vocabulary words for resumes, cover letters, and networking right now. We will also make a French job application. I want to work in France one day, so lots of good prep.
  • Italian Food Culture: My favorite so far! I’m Sicilian on my mom’s side, so I enjoy learning about the Italian-American diaspora and how cultures have a similar emphasis on food in their daily lives. We even get to cook!
  • British Fiction: Women’s fiction, such as the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and George Eliot. The entire class is reading and discussing their work, which is right up my alley!

I have no class on Wednesday and Friday, so it is a chill schedule with plenty of time for work!

-Solenn

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Winter Break Recap

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Hello all!

Welcome back to the blog after a nice month off. I return to Iowa City this week for spring RA training, and then classes start next week! Let’s get my last semester on the road!

My break was very nice, I spent most of it with my family and my three dogs. I caught up with some hometown friends and worked my high school job as well, so I got out of the house!

In my free time, I applied for jobs, read, and did some fun hobbies like coloring, drawing, and watching movies.

Here is a book I finished reading recently:

I hope you enjoyed your break!

-Solenn

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Finals Week Recap

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Hello everyone!

It is currently the middle of finals week, and I thought you’d like a peek at what it is like.

Sunday:

  • Matcha at Midnight Coffee – they have a new holiday cranberry flavor
  • Finish my Literary Editing final portfolio
  • Start my Norse Literature final paper

Monday: 

  • Work at Admissions and give a tour!
  • Go shopping with my friend Camden
  • Holiday party + Secret Santa with my friend group!

Tuesday: 

  • Work again!
  • Turn in Norse paper
  • Work on internship applications
  • Interview!
  • Watch Noelle on Disney+
  • Read Fall I Want

Wednesday: 

  • Cookies/movie night with friends
  • Lock in at Green House coffeeshop
  • Dinner at Cactus with my friend Kailyn

Thursday

  • Play piano at Voxman and work in the Music Library
  • Tour guiding!
  • Dinner and gift swap with friends at Stuffed Olive

Friday 

  • Clean my room and pack to go home!
  • Work at Admissions
  • Movie night with the other RAs

Saturday: 

  • Go on a run
  • Close down Burge
  • Prep to fly home on Sunday!

As you can see, I am lucky and did not have much to do academically, and instead worked and finished some personal projects. Happy holidays, everyone!

-Solenn

 

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Reading Wrapped 2025

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Hello everyone!

Here is my reading wrapped for 2025.

  1. Vinland Saga, Prose Edda, Egil’s Saga, King Hrolf Kraki, Laxardal Saga, Hrafnkel’s Saga – for my Norse literature class
  2. An Archive of Romance – an extension of my favorite series by Ava Reid
  3. Two editions of The Iowa Review for my Literary Editing Class
  4. TBR: The Bright Sword and The Carrying

For my Advanced Creative Writing Class:

  • Biography of X 
  • Lie With Me
  • Because She Never Asked
  • Family Life

For Social Media Marketing:

  • Burn Book

For Fun: 

  • Once Upon A Broken Heart

Hopefully you find some new reading recs for over break!

-Solenn

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Fall Break: Iowa to Arizona

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Hey y’all!

I’m back after a lovely Thanksgiving break back at home in Arizona. It was great soaking in the warmer weather, then being greeted with snow upon my return! Perfect for getting into the holiday spirit.

Over break, I spent time relaxing. I worked on some projects due after the break, spent time with family, baked cookies, decorated for Christmas, enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal, and went Black Friday shopping!

I also got to be with my adorable dogs and sleep in. And I also went to see Of Monsters and Men perform in LA! So that was a fun, quick trip.

I am excited to be back in Iowa City and finish up my last couple of weeks!

-Solenn

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The Best Gifts For Iowa Fans

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Hey y’all!

As the holiday season approaches, I thought you might like some ideas for Hawkeye-themed gifts, available at our Hawkshop in town!

  1. Hawkeye ornament
  2. Any sort of apparel
  3. Alumni clothing
  4. Herky pjs
  5. Dog bandanas
  6. Bibs
  7. Hawkeye water bottle
  8. Hawkeye room decor
  9. Caitlin Clark jersey
  10. Hawkshop gift card
  11. Hawkeye jewelry
  12. Pennant
  13. Flag
  14. Hat
  15. Children’s clothes
  16. Car decor
  17. Backpack

Happy holidays!

-Solenn

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Des Moines Visit

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Hi everyone!

I just got back from Des Moines, where I was running a half marathon! I’ve been training for the past few months for this since it has been on my bucket list. That was my first time being in the city, and I loved it. My friend is from there, and I stayed with her over the weekend.

Race day was chilly and windy, but I quickly warmed up once the race started. I had some injuries, but they did no hinder me during the race! I felt so good during most of it and I cannot believe I ran 13.1 miles! Now time to train for a marathon.

Here is a photo of me running!

Best,
Solenn

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Mumford & Sons Concert

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Hi everyone!

I just returned from a quick road trip to St. Paul, Minnesota, to see Mumford & Sons with my friends!

They are an indie folk band that many of us have probably heard at some point. (“Little Lion Man,” anyone?)

One of my favorite parts of being a student at Iowa is how close we are to other states, so if a musical artist isn’t coming to Iowa, it’s only a few hours to go see them in a bigger city!

My friend Lynne lives just outside St. Paul, so we didn’t have to book a fantastic hotel! We left after classes and made it a few hours before the concert. The openers were The Barr Brothers and Stephen Sanchez, who all gave such fantastic performances!

I have never attended a concert in such a large venue before, so we were all the way up in the balcony! At one point, the lead band ran across the arena to a surprise mini stage close to us to perform a couple of acoustic songs, which was so fun! They played all of my favorites, such as “White Blank Page,” “I Will Wait,” “The Cave,” and “I Believe.”

Roadtripping with my friends was also so much fun, and I feel so lucky to get to have these experiences as a college student.

The four of us at the venue!

Bye for now!
-Solenn

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My Fall Schedule!

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Hello Everyone!

I thought some of you might be curious about my class schedule this semester. And I am here to deliver! I am only taking two classes a day, with one on Fridays. I love this personally, because I have time for everything else I do.

  1. Playwriting 1. This class was not something I really expected to take, but I love it! My TA, Randy, is the coolest person ever. Everyone in the class loves to contribute to discussions, and we act out the plays we write for the class, which is fun. I just wrote a ten-minute play for the course, and we are starting our final project, which is a one-act play. If you want to learn how to write plays, this class is for you!
  2. Literary Editing. I work with the Iowa Review to help with the submissions review and editing practice. We also discuss the art of editing and good editorial practice. We have heavily explored the literary magazine landscape, too.
  3. Medieval Norse Literature. This class is so fun! It is very reading-heavy, but the books are entertaining and quick to read. We do discussions about the reading in class and do writing assignments that range from close reading to adding a chapter to an existing saga – so we can be creative!
  4. Social Media Marketing. This class is so useful. I’ve been learning key terms and concepts for working in social media marketing, and also working on fun projects that analyze brands and media platforms. Our semester-long project is creating a social media campaign for the Bike Library, a local business!
  5. Moneywise. An online class about personal finance. This has taught me a lot about savings, credit cards, and loans. I recommend everyone take it!
  6. Advanced Creative Writing: This one is about truth and lying in writing. We are reading five novels with this aspect throughout the semester, write a weekly two truths and a lie about a week, and write a large piece to be peer-edited in class that falls under this category. I like the discussions we have in class.
My current read for Norse Lit! Poetry is all about the Norse gods.

And that is my schedule! I like that it all connects to what I’m interested in and makes my week enjoyable.

-Solenn

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