Quite Late, Should Sleep....

As the title implies, it's quite late. Considering I've got an exam tomorrow at 8 AM, and I'll be rollin' out of bed at 6:50 so I have time to stretch, shower, eat, and generally wake up. I can't sleep though. My brain is going crazy right now. I started three songs in the past three hours I've tried to sleep, only in my head and on paper (I don't want to disturb the room mates). I'll be working on them a little more tomorrow when I can make noises and not really care. So I figured I might as well go ahead and post something, as it's been a while since someone posted, and if I ask someone to post something, it'll be a while before it gets done what with winter break coming up and such. So here I am again, talking to possibly nobody over the vast expanse of cyberspace. Hello nobody, nice to meet you, thank you for allowing me to feel important for a few minutes.

I was in this exact same predicament last year on the eve of my last exam before winter break. I don't know what it is keeping me awake. Whatever it is needs to go away, I don't like it one bit. Last year instead of doing this, I went walking around outside in the freezing cold with nothing on but a t-shirt, shorts and sandals, pretending I was crazy and muttering to myself. This group of girls passed me, and one of them was like "What the *insert expletive*!?" I don't know why I thought this would make me sleepy, it certainly did not. I went back to Witherspoon and sat in my friend's room as a bunch of them played Super Smash trying to keep the volume to a dull roar. But when you play Super Smash, there's no dull roar to possibly be had. It's either full out roar, or nothing. Around 3 I finally got tired, went back to my room, slept a few hours, and killed my exam the next morning. Let's cross our fingers, knock on wood and do a bunch of other superstitious things to bring that good fortune back for tomorrow's exam (ESCI 1101). Shouldn't be too hard, but we'll see....

So semester in perspective I suppose? Yeah it was good. It was really busy. I've been way too busy this past year and a half. I'm going to cut back on things next semester and take more time for myself. When you're stretched thin, you can't be effective at anything. Unless you're living off of 5 hour energy (subtle product placement) and sleeping in the library, eating scraps out of the trash cans. My workload is really not that bad, it's just not that good either. So next semester this guy is going to slow things down, and take it easy before he departs for the following year to various locations in and out of the US. Man time really just gets away from you. It honestly feels like last month I was catching up with all my friends, inspecting the new parking deck behind Witherspoon, raising very small, relatively non-existent amounts of Cain at Cookout far too often, saying "oh I got my first test back, blah blah blah I just didn't know what to expect blah". Oh my.... In less than a year I will have spent more time away from Charlotte than I ever have in my life, and astronomically more time outside of the US on my own. It scares the heck out of me to be quite frank with you. I've just started developing all these ties to this school and the area, to people and places and bands and clubs and now I've gotta go. That's it, drop it, and hopefully pick back up where I left off when I come back. I honestly don't think that's going to happen for some of the things right now that I spend the majority of my days working on. But I've always found the old saying true, that when one door closes, another one opens.

Anyhow, I'm going to close this blog up for the night and really, really, really try to get to sleep. I didn't even have any caffeine today! To prospective students; I hope you will consider UNCC and the Levine program seriously. This school is amazing, it has something for everyone, and I'd be at quite a significant disadvantage without the program and our directors. Be honest with yourself for the next year or so, and do things that matter to you, that are fun for you, but are still contributing to something in a positive way. Don't build up a good looking, heartless resume, come into the program and lose your steam in the first semester. Be prepared to work hard for this program even after you've gotten it. The term "free ride" could not be more inaccurate. And know that for every ounce of effort you put in, you'll get out of it 10 times that, likely more. And have a fantastic holiday break.

Wish me luck tomorrow!
I don't need your luck... I was born lucky.

Happy Holidays my beloved nobody on cyberspace.

And yes, still no pictures. WHATEVER.

Hey everyone!

My name is Chloe` Rodengen and I’m a freshman in the Levine Scholars Program here at UNCC. This is my first blog entry…so I’m going to go ahead and give this a shot!

To start you off, I’m from South Florida so adjusting to Charlotte has been a big change for me. One of the biggest changes has definitely been the weather! I have never ever seen the leaves change and tend to freak out a bit every time I walk outside because it’s so beautiful (and cold! we’ll for me at least). Not to say that palm trees and beaches aren’t nice too, but there is definitely something special about having four seasons. Yes, I think its safe to say that I’m falling in love with fall. :)

A few weeks ago, my suite mate Bethany invited me and a few other friends to her house near Asheville, NC so I could see the true leaves changing in the mountains for the first time. We hopped in the car and drove about an hour and a half west until we reached her house near the Appalachian mountain range. Since we left at night, I had no idea what to expect in the morning. When I woke up and walked towards the kitchen, I set my eyes on one of the most amazing things I’d ever seen. There was so much color everywhere! Here’s a picture of the mountains from Bethany’s balcony. For a native Floridian, this was definitely one thing I wish I had growing up.

After a great breakfast of pancakes that Bethany whipped up for us, we jumped back into the car and drove down to South Carolina (which was only about 15-20 min away!) and saw this gorgeous little area by a creek that had a bridge built back in the 1820’s.

We walked around the area, took some fun pictures and just had a really peaceful and relaxing afternoon. Here’s a picture of the four of us with the beautiful leaves in the background!

(Anna, Kailey, Bethany and me!)

We then drove back to North Carolina and ate at this cute little pizzeria/bakery in downtown Saluda. We ordered a mushroom and goat cheese pizza to share and let me tell you, I’ve never had such a delicious pizza in my life. Full and content, we packed up and took the drive back to Charlotte.

This trip was definitely a lot of fun and I had such a great time being immersed into fall for the first time! I’m definitely getting to experience a lot of really cool things here in Charlotte, the change in seasons for sure being one of them. Looks like winters right around the corner though! Uh oh, guess I better get ready for snow, there’s a first time for everything I suppose, haha.

Thanksgiving break is coming up in a few days though, so It’ll be nice to get a little taste of home (and the glorious 75 degree weather) before going into finals in just a couple weeks. I can’t believe how fast this semester has gone by! Hope you all have a wonderful day :) thanks for reading, I’ll be back soon!

Love,

Chloe`

Greetings and salutations!

My name is Kevin Caldwell and I am a freshman in the Levine Scholar’s Program here at UNC Charlotte.

College gets a little overwhelming at times...

On that note, I’m actually from Charlotte – I’ve lived here all of my life. I often get asked how I like going to school so close to home; many people find this concept appalling. There seems to be this misconception that, in order to truly “go away to college,” one must travel at least 100 hundred miles away. While I certainly understand this idea – and I’ll admit that I struggled with it in the weeks preceding school – I’ve come to completely reject it.

Going to school so close to home is one of the greatest things that could have happened to me – I love it. I’ve always appreciated Charlotte as a whole, but now that I have the liberties associated with being a college student, it’s one hundred times better. Not only do I get to experience college just like any other freshman, but I also get to have dinner with my family every now and then, which I really enjoy. I have the advantage of knowing where the good restaurants are, along with all of the good events to attend throughout the year. I’ve also grown to appreciate the internal GPS I’ve been developing over the years in the city – that is a priceless skill, my friends, as the roads in Charlotte don’t always make sense. (Correction: they rarely make sense.)

A lot has happened since school has started, though, and I’ll try and encapsulate as much as possible in this post. I’ll start with one of my favorite memories of this year – the beach trip over Fall Break.

Over our Fall Break, the Levine Program rented an oceanfront house for the freshmen and sophomore classes to spend some time together away from all of the daily stresses of college. Twenty-six of the thirty of us went, along with a few faculty members, Dr. Zablotsky and Kelley (the directors of the program) and Dr. Mike Richardson, a member of the Levine Foundation. (Can you say “perfect?”) The trip was simply fantastic.

We had a lot of fun cooking at the beach.

First of all, the beach is awesome. It just is. Second of all, it’s even more awesome when you’re with a group of really groovy, swell people. We got to splash around in the water, play cornhole on the beach, lounge around under the sun and take long walks up and down the shoreline. (These were my favorite…) After these long walks, re-nourishment was of the upmost importance, but that wasn’t at all a problem; after all, Dr. Mike bought over half of the grocery store. In fact, I think I still have some leftover cookies in my dorm room right now from the beach. (I don’t even think they’ve even been opened yet. I’ll attend to that issue later this week.)

Family.

Two things in particular stand out to me when I look back on that weekend. One of them occurred spontaneously when Anna S., Elizabeth, Bethany and I were walking along the beach around 10:00 p.m. Saturday night. As we were walking, we began to hear really loud dance music – we walked closer to investigate and stumbled upon an older couple’s 50^th anniversary party. Since the party was a pretty lively one, we decided to host our own little dance party (using their music, of course) on the beach right where we stood. We were having a good ol’ time when we noticed a few partygoers begin to maneuver to the edge of their dance floor to watch us. (I guess we did look rather strange…) We didn’t mind the attention and just kept on dancing until we saw a bright flash – the event’s photographer had spotted us and had promptly taken our picture. I suppose he wanted to capture this unexpected occurrence as a unique way of documenting the event – this is the best guess I have. Regardless, it gives me a certain sense of pride to know that, somewhere, this couple might be laughing about the night they watched the goofy group interpretive dance outside on the beach. That gives me immense joy.

We had fun with the house's elevator.

The other particularly memorable thing (at least for me) about that weekend comes in the form of a personal epiphany – I secretly want to become a barista. Done. I’m not even kidding: it seems like the perfect career. Making different flavors of coffee, experimenting with different spice combinations and bringing the goodness that is a hot beverage into someone’s hands brings untold levels of happiness into my heart: I love, love, love it. Over the weekend I managed to perfect my signature beverage – hot chocolate. I would whip one up for anyone who would accept one and repeatedly caught myself offering one to anything that moved. (I wasn’t kidding when I said that I loved making them. Simply being in the kitchen excites me.) Now the secret to hot chocolate, you see (drum roll, please) is to add a little bit of vanilla coffee seasoning syrup, purchased from a local coffeeshop. Once this has been added to the mixture, it gives brings the beverage from the realm of “good” to “fantastic.” Add a sprinkle or two of cinnamon and you’re sailing!

My speciality beverage.

School continued after Fall Break like usual until, one week after we got back from Fall Break, we had an extraordinary opportunity placed in our hands. Our freshmen common reading author, Dr. Moustafa Bayoumi, came to campus to present a lecture on his book, How Does it Feel to be a Problem? This book is centered on Arab-American relations in the post-9/11 era, focusing specifically on the way these relations have affected young adults; it’s very relatable and I would strongly recommend it. I was fortunate enough to be able to have dinner with Dr. Bayoumi before his lecture along with the wonderful Bethany, Jake and Samantha. I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say that we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to engage one-on-one with him. We were able to ask him a lot of personal questions (which I never thought I’d be able to do) and were able to hear his story about trying sushi in Korea – it was presented as a whole fish and was served to him when it was still alive!

Bethany, Jake, Dr. Bayoumi, yours truly and Sam after the lecture.

Before I conclude this blog, I’d like to write about one final thing– the Florida roadtrip. Two weekends ago, Caitlin, Jon, Kelsey and I drove down to Tallahassee Florida! Caitlin’s sister plays in the marching band over at Florida State and she had extra tickets for the FSU/Maryland game – she offered us tickets! We all decided that’d be an interesting way to spend the weekend, so we clambered in the car and set off! I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend the weekend.

There are very few occasions when a solid six-hour car ride can be described as fun; this was one of them. For the entire 300 or so miles we jammed out to straight-up country music… and it was perfect. (And, yes: I’ll admit that I was guilty of singing loudly and proudly to some good ol’ Taylor Swift. No shame.) On the way down we stopped at a Cracker Barrel, feasted on some Southern goodness and actually rolled into Jacksonville (where we were spending the night) at around 9:00 pm.

The next day was a lot of fun. We got up at the crack of dawn (which wasn’t really the most enjoyable experience) and had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. Jon bought us all coffee and delicious circles of sugary goodness; afterwards, we drove another three or so hours along I-10 into Tallahassee. When we got to FSU we went to Caitlin’s sister’s band practice, which was spectacular, I must add!

I was completely floored by the marching band – I’d never experienced something like that before. You see, from 6^th to 12^th grade I attended Northwest School of the Arts – a fantastic school I might add – which, as you may have guessed, didn’t have sports. I loved every second I was there, but I did miss out on some of those “quintessential” high school experiences, namely: football games. As a result, I never was exposed to such things as marching bands at that close of a level. I’d attended college football games before, but I’d never been so close to a marching band. (And there is something to be said about being so close to the band: it was really, really cool.)

All of us at the game!

The game was pretty fun, too! We had excellent seats and enjoyed the whole game, particularly the arm-waving “ooohhh-ooh-oh-oh-oohh” motion that all Seminole fans prescribe too. (That was a lot of fun, I must admit.) The rest of the day consisted of a delectable dinner at Olive Garden and a long drive back to Jacksonville, followed by some more driving the following morning – six hours straight, if I recall. So that was the weekend! We drove… and drove some more, but it was well worth it and we all had a ton of fun.

This is one of my favorite pictures. Ever.

As I conclude this blog post about my freshman year so far, I have one thing to say: I really love college. It’s fantastic. I can’t summarize my thoughts in any better way, but I know I’m in the perfect place right now. I couldn’t imagine my life any other way.

So until next time – Kevin’s signing off. Thanks for reading!

Hey y’all! It’s my first blog so I’m going to try and give this a good shot and talk about some stuff that’s been important to me over the past few weeks. I’ll add some fancy pictures and we’ll see how this works out!

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided I was going to go through with recruitment for a sorority. I signed up way back in the summer, because I’ve always wanted to be a part of Greek life. Our rush week starts a lot later than most universities because our Greek life is smaller here, so waiting the first month of school was so nerve-racking! Finally, it was time for recruitment. It was a super busy, mildly stressful trying to get it done with all of my architecture work, but totally worth it week! Throughout the week we had house tours (the houses are GORGEOUS!), a philanthropy night where we learned about each sororities charity of choice, history night, where you learned history of the sorority of course, and finally preference night where you chose your first two choices. THEN FINALLY, it was bid day! This is where all the girls go down to Greek Village and have to wait what seems like an excruciating time to open the letters that give you an invite to a sorority…and turned into one of the best days of my life!

This is the group of girls, my sorority recruitment group, that I was with the whole week doing activities with! Only a few of us are in the same sorority now, but we’re all still friends (:

Whooo ADPi! Right after receiving our bids!

My pledge class, Alphas of fall '11!

That day, I got invited to join the sorority Alpha Delta Pi. I was SO excited, especially because they had been my top choice the whole entire week. I ripped open my letter and ran to the house, running into tons of other excited girls. We all chanted and took pictures and met our pledge class sisters, and our soon to be sisters. Then that day we had a bid day activity, where you had a ‘bid day buddy’, and the whole new member class and older sisters all went to a cute little park. We did paddleboats and a train ride, and there was a fun petting zoo and a merry-go-round! It was a great time to get to know everyone and the tons of names to remember, because ADPi is now 121 members! That’s a lot.

My bid day buddy and me, paddle boating!

YAY Alphie, our lion mascot (:

Ever since bid day, I have absolutely loved Alpha Delta Pi. I now have tons of girls who have my back and are amazing to be around. That weekend, for instance, we went on our chapter retreat and got to play some fun games and learn more about ADPi. We also have our first philanthropy event coming up, to benefit Ronald McDonald House, and have already had mixers and other events. I also got my diamond sister (my ‘big’) and my grandbig! We always go out to eat and do other stuff together. I loved Charlotte before joining this organization, but now I love it even more!

Me with some of my pledge class sisters on our chapter retreat!

My grandbig, big, and me at dinner, eating sushi...a family tradition!

Well that’s all for now, I’ll be back on soon with more updates on my busy life!

XOXO Elizabeth

A Return to Ye Olde Grindstone

I was in my room from 3:00 to 11:00 on Wednesday night of this week. I had only had three days of classes, and I started opening my mouth to complain, but then you know what I realized? No, that's what we're here to do, and that's what your life should be like every week day. However much I wish it were not that way, it is, and there's nothing I can do or say to change it. But what I can do is remember summer, and all the good things that happened, because they may take away my free time, they may re-focus my brain power from thoughts of mid afternoon sandwich eating and TV watching, but they can never take my memory! So here's some pictures, just a little taste of what happened for me this summer when I wasn't A: Doing my Habitat internship, or B: Taking a summer class. Enjoy!

This is Grayson minus two members. We did this show in this lounge/bar/bookstore in NoDa at the beginning of summer, it was pretty cool.


This is Grayson plus a female and a few years. This is literally a picture that I took in the future, I know, it's insane how white Baylor's hair is.

The LEAF Festival in Black Mountain, NC. My Grandfather's house is right beside the campground where they hold the festival. It's a pretty neat event.

Gray Lady's old barn up and my Grandfather's house in Black Mountain, NC.

The House of Huffman. We took a weekend trip up at the beginning of summer to do some work on the house and go to the LEAF festival.

So between now and when I wrote that first paragraph, I have discovered that I actually have approximately zero pictures from anything except the first week of my summer. Well, there are some on the Facebooks, but that's just some people stuff. I mean, basically I just had a good time with my family, friends from high school, old band mates, etcetera. Played a few shows, took a trip up to the Mountains about midway through with some UNCC amigos, went to sliding rock and Bele Chere Festival in Asheville. Stayed at the House of Huffman, worked on a shed for my padre, with much appreciated assistance from Evan. Did a lot of things, saw a lot of things, learned a lot of things, missed a lot of things that I only have here at school. I've got a great group of friends, a fantastic scholarship program that provides me with fantastic opportunities to grow every day and gives me the best support group of brilliant, hard working individuals that I know I will miss more than anything when we graduate in a few years. Right now, I'm just slowing down, and I'm going to enjoy my time here, my friends, the great days and even the awful days. Hope to keep you guys updated throughout the year, and I hope that you feel as great as I feel right now.

Team Jacob for Life.

Summertime

It's been quite a while since I've posted and so much has been going on. After finishing up freshman year with a few exams and papers, I stayed in Charlotte and spent an amazing five weeks interning at Carolinas HealthCare Foundation (CHF). Each of us in the program interned with a non-profit organization in Charlotte this summer, learning about how a 501(c)(3) functions.

Before starting at the Foundation, I had read much about CHF, its mission, beneficiaries, and goals as a non-profit, but I was still unsure of what I would be able to do there as an intern. There seemed to be so many aspects of the Foundation that I knew absolutely nothing about, that I felt uneasy just jumping right in. Luckily, from my very first day at CHF everyone was so welcoming and willing to help me understand what the Foundation does. I spent time getting to know everyone there, and I worked with them on many different projects from writing a case statement, to planning, promoting and executing successful fundraisers, to gaining an understanding of Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) as a whole.

Attending charity golf and tennis tournaments, each in honor of a specific child's fight against cancer, helped me to understand the importance of fundraising for the cancer centers and institutes that are a part of CHS. At these events I had the opportunity to get to know the children and families who are battling cancer and learn about their relationship with the Foundation. It was really incredible to see the unconditional support that the Charlotte community provides for CHS and how willing it is to fundraise for other local causes.

One fun event that I helped out at for the Foundation was the Prelude to the Dream viewing party. Prelude to the Dream is a charity dirt track race with NASCAR drivers that supports four children's hospitals across the nation, one of them being Levine Children's Hospital. The viewing party at Blackfinn in Uptown was hosted by the Starlight Society, a group of young professionals in Charlotte that works closely with Levine Children's Hospital.

Here's a picture of me and people I worked with at the Foundation. From left: me, Sheri, Morgan (the other intern at CHF), and Kirstin. Work can be pretty fun too! :-)

While living in Charlotte for the first part of the summer, I was finally able to make some trips to the beautiful lakes in (and near) Charlotte, Lake Tillery and Lake Norman. I'm pretty ashamed to say that it took me an entire year to get out and go boating when both Tillery and Norman are each within an hour from campus. It was such a blast and the lakes are so beautiful! Jasmine took Christina and I out on her boat one day, we just swam, ate and relaxed after our first week of work. And then Emily, one of Christina and I's apartment mates (I'm not sure if that's how you say it, but technically speaking, we weren't roommates. Hmmm...) during the summer, has a boat out on Lake Norman and her family took us boating one weekend.

Emily's dad was trying to throw us off the tube, but we were holding on pretty tight!

And now I'm back home in D.C. for the rest of the summer. I just started working at Reddz Trading, a resale clothing store in Bethesda that I worked at last summer when it had just opened. It's pretty fun working there, seeing all of the new stuff come in. June must be the time of the year that people choose to clean out their closets because we've been so busy lately buying! Besides Reddz and getting to see friends I haven't seen in months, I'm so excited to go to Los Angeles in July to see my little cousins-- one is only a few months old! And then after a family trip to Maine to see some more of my cousins, I'm back to Charlotte and school starts in late August.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and is finding time to get out and enjoy the weather-- staying inside all day is really no fun! Thanks for reading, and I'll be back soon!

...and here are the pictures

Well, now you all know that I am completely incapable of doing anything spectacular with technology. Apparently getting your pictures to appear on a blog falls into that category as well. Here's try #2!

This is what the future orphanage looked like on the very first day, although earlier that morning those holes weren't even filled with dirt!

Amigas siempre :)

On the very last day, we took some of the kids to the beach. For most of them it was their very first time seeing the ocean!

Teaching the kids how to play UNO!!!

Working in the Education Center, built by SHH. I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to be a teacher!

Our finished product on the last day of work!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Wow. It has literally been months since I last posted. Sorry about that for all of you who are clinging to the edge of your seat, waiting with anticipation to hear what is happening in my life :)

Anyway, I can't really believe that this semester is already coming to an end. It seems like it was just a week ago when Charlotte welcomed us back from Winter Break with three snow days! As a native Floridian, I never actually thought I would have a snow day, so you can imagine my excitement as we went sledding down the hills in front of our Student Union. Good times, good times.

That was way back in the middle of January. Now fast forward through some classes, a round or two of midterms, lots of laughs, a FABULOUS Levine Scholarship weekend for the class of 2015, a few loads of laundry, some intramural softball games, and a ton of happiness to Spring Break 2011.

All along I had planned on going back to Florida for break. Afterall, I hadn't been home for almost two months, and for a girl who tends to get a little homesick, I was really missing my family. It was about three weeks before break, though, when my friend, Jordan, told me about this new club on campus called Students Helping Honduras. Basically, it's this amazing organization located on college campuses throughout the country that raises money to build orphanages and schools in Honduras. Naturally, as a future teacher and someone who absolutely LOVES kids, I wanted to go and volunteer there. It just so happened that there was a service trip for college students during the exact dates of break, beginning one day after classes let out and ending one day before those classes resumed.

I normally take a good while to make big decisions, but, given the short time frame, I had to decide pretty quickly. I had never been out of the country so I had to hurry and get all the needed vaccinations, apply for my passport, make sure everything else was in order, and mentally prepare myself for the "adventure."

Those eight days were some of the best of my entire life. It was such an eye-opening experience, and even though I will attempt to describe it a bit, I know I will not do it justice. Over that week, I was able to visit an orphanage that had a total of 3 staff members "caring" for 150 children, all under the age of 13. It's hard to imagine something like that; sometimes thinking back to it, I still can't believe that a place like that existed. What was the most amazing thing of all, though, was the fact that every single one of those children wore the biggest, brightest smiles on their faces the entire time we were there, giving us hugs and pictures they had drawn for us. When we left that day, I realized that the work we would be doing the rest of the week would be even more wonderful than I originally thought.

Our mission for the week was to start work on another orphanage. This new orphanage, which will eventually house 24 children from the state orphanage that we visited, was located in a tiny village called Villa Soleada. Comprised of 44 families, this place is one of the most magical, loving places in the entire world. There are about 250 children in the village who, when our bus drove up, ran to the doors and jumped into our arms immediately. Again, I don't think I've ever seen such happy children.

There were about 40 college students from different campuses across the country, who, for those eight days, worked long hours laying the foundation and building the walls of an orphanage. I was lucky enough to be given the additional opportunity to work in the Education Center in the mornings, helping the school-age children with their vowels and the younger kids with their fine motor skills. What a cool experience!! In the afternoons the entire village would come outside to play soccer in the middle of a huge field.

These few details don't even begin to describe my experience there, but for those of you who have taken the time to read through this long blog, I hope that you now have a little glimpse of an amazing country and the difference that a few college students can make. I bring up this trip in about every conversation that I have, so if you ever talk to me in person, be prepared for countless stories and hundreds of pictures. In the meantime, here are a few that were taken during that time.

Talk to you all soon! Oh, and I'm not sure that I mentioned this before, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE inspirational/motivational/changing-the-world quotes. It's becoming an obsession. So I suppose I should leave you with one to think about until I blog again: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead


Amigas siempre :)

Teaching the kids how to play UNO!!

Working in the Education Center, built by SHH, with the little kids. It definitely made me realize that I absolutely CANNOT WAIT to be a teacher!

Picture this without the dirt already filled in and you have a pretty good idea of what the orphanage looked like on day one.

And this is a view from a nearby tree on the last day of work :)

We took some of the kids to the beach on the last day. For most of them it was their first time seeing the ocean!

And the semester's almost done!

I haven't posted for quite a while, so it seems that I have to catch this blog up on my life. To start with, my family and I went to Cancún, Mexico for spring break, which was incredible. The beaches there are gorgeous! The water was so blue it looked like it was straight off of a postcard.

I think that I'll just live on here in the future...

But now I'm back to my non-beach reality in the lovely city of Charlotte. This past Friday, Christina and I decided to take full advantage of Charlotte's amazing weather by picnicking at the park! After I got off work, I swung by this amazing sandwich place called Laurel Market (the location on South Blvd) and picked up an Athena wrap for Christina and an Apricot-Smoked Turkey sandwich for myself. The food is so delicious; Christina and I were starving by the time we finally got around to eating it due to some directional issues we had finding the park. Despite the fact that you have to wait in a bit of a line around lunch time and its a to-go place only, Laurel Market tops them all for Charlotte's delicious cheap eats (not to mention, healthy!) We had our little picnic at Freedom Park-- the most beautiful public park in Charlotte, this place has a lake and gazebos and everything! It's such a pretty venue. I can't wait for summer concerts and events there.

Then on Saturday, we went to the Niner baseball game vs. Harvard, which was really fun except for the heat. I'm all for beautiful sunny weather, but when we're sitting out in the baseball stadium and the sun is beating down straight on us, its not so pleasant anymore. On the other hand, it is a nice way to get a tan and support an awesome baseball team!

Christina, Me, Erin and Raegan at the baseball game showing some Niner Nation pride!

I can't believe we only have six more weeks of class and then finals. The year has gone by so fast! We're already registering for our Fall 2011 classes next week, and a lot of my friends and I have already begun planning study abroad trips the upcoming years. I'm looking into a study abroad semester in Seville, Spain. I hear its bea-u-tiful!

There's a to-do list of work that I have to catch up on before I leave for Charleston this weekend (I'm going to stay with one of my friends for Charleston Fashion Week-- I'm SO excited! I'll have to post some pictures later!) I've done a pretty good job avoiding parts of it, which is really making tonight not look so great. Wish me luck! :)

WHAT? NO PICTURES!?

WOAH

It has been WAY too long since anyone posted on this thing. It's about time that someone posted on it. Here we go, get ready, are you ready!? I don't think you are! Get pumped, get excited, because HEEEEREEEEE IT COMESSSSSS!!!!! ANOTHER POST.

So now we're back at school. We've been here for about 1 and 1 half weeks now and have only had two real days of class. What kind of monkey business is that? It's time to get back into it, so Mr. Weather, you need to quit it with your wintering. Just stop it, because we all want to learn stuff, and things like that.

Really it just gets frustrating being out of the routine. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not someone that gets a thrill out of having every hour of my time blocked off into neat little boxes, with letters of buildings and numbers telling me where I need to be and what I need to be doing there. It's just nice to have a general idea. When you have this much free time on your hands, you lose the ability to use your hands because you're so caught up in holding all that free time, and you end up wasting your whole day away because you can't use your hands which are essential tools for doing things. I can't remember where I heard this, probably from my dad, he seems to have an endless supply of life lessons, but essentially the idea is that people who have less free time are more productive with what they do have than people who have a ton of time. Really it makes common sense, but don't judge me. This right here is a judgment free zone.

So Jacob is ready to get back to school. And so is Sam. We gripe about it every day. But don't worry, when we get back to school we'll have something else to gripe about. We always do. This semester I am very pleased with the workload in my classes, and my classes in general. I've got a Western History and Culture class, Ethical Issues, German (Deutsch if you sprechen the Deutsch) Music (sight singing), and my favorite, CALCULUS! Just kidding, that's my least favorite. I hate math. But my teacher is very cool. Already done some homework for three of them. So that's fun. And I get the sense that it's going to be a solid amount, which makes me happy. BRING IT ON.

So on to the more interesting parts of my life, Grayson (the band) has just put some new tunes up on myspace. Go check it out, it's on myspace.com/graysonnc, the song is called Where Was I, it goes along with our theme of question words that we apparently have going on, the other one is called Where You Are. I pitched the idea of changing our name to The Where Wolves, simply for the sake of having a pun within our band name. Thoughts? Awful name, I know, it makes us sound like a misplaced pack of half-breed man wolves. Though with the amount of facial hair going on in our band, one must question whether we really are werewolves or not...

Hah, bet I had you going there for a little bit, thinking we were actually werewolves. We're not, but it'd be pretty cool if we were I can't lie. So moving on, we've got a lot of stuff coming up for the program. This Thursday the scholars and directors are hitting the town for one wild and crazy night, so look out Charlotte. Levine Museum of the New South here we COME! No really though, I'm looking forward to it. I just need to get back in time for bed time.

Listen, so I'm out of things to talk about, I just wanted to stop in and say hello to the complete uncertainty of cyberspace prowlers. I'm going to go heckle my friend Kate on her radio show.

Keep it classy ladies and gentlemen,

Team Jacob for Lyfe

-Jacob Huffman

P.S. That's right, there are no pictures here. Let your imagination go crazy.

Yummmmm

So I made it through my first semester of college--I'm happy to have spent a couple of weeks at home catching up with family and old friends, but now I'm ready to be back with my Charlotte friends. One of my favorite things about Charlotte is all the restaurants! I'm a pretty picky eater, but I love most any sweets, and I enjoy eating out way more than I should. There's just something about sitting in a restaurant that I love--it's not that I am into super-gourmet food or that the dining hall on campus is bad--eating out is just a hobby, I guess. In case you're looking to try out some new places in Charlotte, here are some of my new favorites:

Jackson's Java: When I can't get any work done, I go to Jackson's Java to finish it. It's in the same shopping center as the Harris Teeter right by campus. I never get anything fancy--usually just a vanilla coffee--but the environment is just so cozy and friendly. They also play really cool acoustic versions of popular music. Definitely a favorite study spot.

Boudreaux's: Located in the NoDa district about 15 minutes from campus, Boudreaux's is a delicious Cajun restaurant. I've been told their gumbo is pretty amazing, but I'm a big fan of their crab cake croissant and their cheese grits. One of the walls is just an old garage door...kind of bizarre. Definitely go to Boudreaux's if you want a cheap, authentic Cajun meal.

Jacob and Cait at Boudreaux's

My Bento: This place is right next door to Jackson's Java. My roommates and I have a borderline obsession with good sushi, and My Bento's sushi is delicious. We've been there a couple times, and had the same waitress both times--she was really friendly and helped us navigate the menu. If you don't want sushi, you can also get a Bento box with noodles, meat, fruit, dessert, and a salad. The amount of food that comes with a Bento box meal is ridiculous (in a good way).

The Crepe Cellar: I've only been here once, but I can't wait to go back. I had the Queen City crepes, which have chicken, bacon, cheddar cheese, and some sort of yummy sauce. Mmmmm. Then I shared the "Brownie in a Blanket" dessert crepe with my friend Claire. That was heaven. I think when I go back I'll skip dinner and just get dessert--it's that worth it.

Laura and Celia with their Strawberry, Banana, and Nutella Crepe

The Penguin: The Penguin is an old drive-in that's now a small restaurant serving up just about every greasy and unhealthy, yet delicious food imaginable. My favorite is their fried pickles dipped in ranch dressing. Then again, I like just about anything dipped in ranch. The Penguin recently came under new management, and I'm not sure how much it's changed, but hopefully it's still serving up good southern meals.Fried Pickles

Hanging from the Spinning Penguin Sign

Amelie's: Okay, I saved the best for last--especially if you have a sweet tooth like I do. Amelie's is located right between NoDa and downtown. It's a French bakery done right. They have eclairs, mini tarts, petit fours, chocolates, and just about every other sweet imaginable. Their bestseller is a salted caramel brownie--which happens to be my favorite. If you actually want a meal, Amelie's has great daily soups and a variety of delicious sandwiches. I'd recommend chicken salad on a croissant for lunch.

Some of the Desserts

Quirky, Artsy Decor

If you're stuck on campus, there are still plenty of good food options--my favorites are Chick-Fil-A, Sushi with Gusto (both in the Cone Center), and Starbucks (in the Student Union). Crown Commons usually has something good to offer, too. We also have occasional "family dinners" in our friends' apartment. Even though their cooking utensils are scarce, it's fun to cook a real meal and sit down together to eat.

Making Biscuits

Voila!

Basically, if you're in Charlotte, you're never far from good food!