HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy new year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

So, I celebrated Christmas in Denver and just got back to my home in Minneapolis yesterday. Last night I hung out with people that I haven't seen in six months, a year, and a year and a half! It was a lot of fun! Every time I come home, I am surprised to see how much everyone has changed!
Hope everyone had fun and safe holidays!
Merry Christmas!

Oh yeah, and my computer is finally in the shop, so more pictures should be up within a few days!

Winter Break!

Hello Folks! Winter break has FINALLY started! I arrived in Denver, CO, to visit my uncle and aunt and cousins, and there are more on the way!. It's nice to finally have a break from school and college for a while:-) and the free, home-cooked meals aren't bad either!

End-of-the-year Formal

Friday was the last day of classes! So, of course, my house decided to throw a formal party in honor of finally finishing fall finals! It was also my cousins brithday so we combined party causes. I hardly ever dress up at all, so it was fun to put on a dress and actually put make-up on! The turn out was a bit bigger than we expected, but fun was had by all:-) The picture is the group of girls that decided to get dressed up early to take my cousin out to dinner. We went to the Ale Works... DELICIOUS!

Madrigal Dinner

This weekend was crazy for the chorale. Rehearsal on Friday night, three-hour-long concert on Saturday and Sunday and last night we left for Big Sky around 3:00 and didn't get back until close to midnight! I saw more than half of the choir at the library today trying to catch up with school work! The concerts went really well. My grandparents came out from Billings to watch on Sunday night. The Big Sky performance is always my favorite of the year and this year was no different. The picture is from last year, but it will have to do because I still don't have a computer to put up my own pictures.

LAST WEEK!

So, as most students are well aware, the last week of classes for the semester is finally here. This makes for a heap of stressed out students and for extended library hours. Last week, I figured that I didn't have much to do, but everyday my list grows and grows. Basically, I am swamped, even after a semester of being on top of my game! My crashed hard drive doesn't help that situation at all. On top of all of my homework and studying, the chorale has a weekend full of work with the Madrigal Dinners. Tonight and tomorrow night we have dinner concerts here in town, and on Monday we have a dinner concert in Big Sky, which will take up most of the day. I just have to keep telling myself... one more week, one more week, one more week...

Such as Life

Hello folks!
So, Monday night comes around and I have a huge project and presentation due on Tuesday. Knowing my luck, of course, my computer decides that I shouldn't turn in that project, and it freezes and doesn't turn back on again. Luckily, I was able to reconstruct a semi-acceptable version of my project. So, I appologize, but I will not be able to put up any pictures for a little while, until I go back to Minneapolis to get my computer fixed. Don't worry, I will still keep you updated about what's happening on the best campus in the world!

Museum of the Rockies

Museum of the Rockies is a small, yet very cool museum full of dinosaurs and Native American artifacts.  Every few months, there is an exhibit that changes, so every time you visit, something will have changed.  There is also a planetarium, which I really recommend going to!  People from all over the country come to Bozeman to visit Museum of the Rockies and has more visitors per year than any other College Museum in the country!

Cat/Griz weekend!

Cat/Griz weekend is always epic and this year was no exception.  On Friday, Bobcat fans showed their school spirit by participating in the "Blue and Gold Undie-Run".  Starting at the gate by Roberts Hall, a crowd of students stripped down to their blue and gold underwear and sprinted to the Spirit statue and back.  The game on Saturday was crazy to say the least!  The student section was packed to the brim and everyone was sporting their blue and gold!  All of my roommates and I painted our faces and we even painted our dog!  Even though we lost the game terribly, fun was had by all!

Cat/Griz is soon!!!

The biggest football game of the year is happening this weekend and this year it is here in Bozeman!!!!  The Montana State Bobcats vs. the Montana Grizzlies.  Last weekend students lined up nice and early to get their ticket to the wild and crazy game, which sold out on Monday, the second day tickets were on sale.  The whole town is getting ready for the big game by setting up a Cat/Griz blood drive and food drive.  I feel like this whole state is obsessed with this game.  Everyone is getting really excited and people from all over are coming into town to take part in a weekend of fun! GO CATS!!!!!!

SNOW

So this morning, I looked out my window and found about a foot of snow on the ground.  Yesterday was relatively warm with no snow at all!  Just proves the statement "if you don't like the weather in Montana, just wait a few minutes!"  Even though I am not a huge fan of being cold and wet, I usually enjoy the first few snowfalls.  Walking to school this morning was like walking through a winter wonderland! Everything was so beautiful and quiet and the snow actually is white! Unlike in the cities, where the snow is almost always brown.

Boiling River

For Veterans Day (yesterday), the University was nice enough to give us a day off from classes!  My roommates and I decided that I good way to spend our day would be by relaxing in the boiling river.  Right outside of Gardiner, MT (about an hour and a half away from Bozeman) there is a super hot river that meets up with the Gardiner River, which is extremely cold.  The hot river waterfalls into the cold river, and that is where you sit and relax.  It is so easy to lose track of time there because you never get too hot or too cold because you are stationed where hot and cold meets.  The best part about the boiling river... IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL!

Pray for Snow

Every year around this time, a huge Bozeman-wide party is put together to "pray for snow".  No praying is actually involved (unless you choose to do so by yourself of course) but activities are planned all night for the occasion.  A band or DJ or a few come and everyone dances, games are played, and my favorite part... the huge, gigantic bon fire.  People usually will start to dance around the fire and see who can get closest to it without getting too hot.  Last year, I started a "dancing train" around the fire and got a whole bunch of people to join!  The party is tons of fun and is looked forward to every year.

HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween around here is a big thing.  Everyone dresses up and turns the holiday into a weekend event.  This year, my roommates and I had tons of fun in the weeks prior of Halloween making our costumes!  I was mother nature... inspired by customers at Jo Ann Fabrics (where I work).  I saw tons of animals this year while roaming the streets (zebras, cows, an owl, bears, lions, cheetahs, an antelope, a rainbow fish, etc) and tons of super heros!  My favorite though would have to be the construction cones.  Three guys dressed up as giant construction cones and stood out in the street to stop traffic.  When the cars tried to go around them, they would move right with them! I was laughing SO hard!

I didn't get a very good picture of my costume... so this is the best one I got.

Midnight Mania!

Midnight Mania was, in my opinion, one of the most fun events that the University has ever put on.  From 8PM - 1AM the field house was transformed into a wild child's heaven!  There was a velcro wall and a climbing wall and an obstacle course you had to do while wearing drunk-googles, and sumo-wresting and FREE FOOD!!!!  Tons of prizes were handed out and everyone was having such a good (and safe) time!  My favorite part (besides the free food) was probably the velcro wall.  You put on a velcro body suit and you jumped around on a giant inflatable floor and bounced into the wall.  Then you were stuck on the wall for a while until you threw yourself off of it.  Great fun!  Great night!

The Top picture is of Me and a friend Sumo-wrestling.  We ran into each other and fell over and couldn't get back up without help!

The bottom picture is my roommate, Jon, jumping into the velcro wall

Off-Campus Housing

Bozeman is quite the college town, and college towns have many perks like lots of coffee shops and student discounts.  Another awesome thing about college towns... lots of off-campus housing options that are ideal for college students.  Most of which are close to campus, and some even have school year/summer leases.  I was in the dorms my freshman year (North Hedges woot woot) but my sophomore year I moved into a house right across the street from campus.  My sophomore year I lived there with six people two dogs and a snake...(i usually don't associate with things without legs).  and this year we rearranged and now I live with four other people and one dog... and a fish that may or may not be dying :-(  Off campus housing is big fun:-)

In the picture~ my roommates: Jon, me, Britta (my cousin), Hamdan, and Thor (also my cousin)

PS - the color of the text is the color of our super awesome shag carpet!

Football Games!

I really don't go to football games to watch football.  I actually have no clue what is happening on the field!  Nevertheless, football games are fantastic and the best way to spend a free saturday.  Tickets are free to students (thank goodness)!  I dress up in my school spirit bling and yell and jump around a lot and chant and cheer when the crowd does! If you like to people watch like I do, you would like football games because people do weird things at sporting events! Tailgating is a fun part of the games too... assuming you're not walking around in waist deep mud.  There is not actually waist deep mud, but after we get snow dumped on us and then it melts the next day... mud gets the best of me.  I guess people out here in Montana are hardcore because a little mud never  stops them from having a blast!

In the picture~my roommates and I about to leave for the game!  All decked out in our Bobcat attire!

Road Trips!

Road trips are always a good time, and in Montana, there are so many cool places to go and visit on a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip!  Missoula was my first road trip that I went on in college, we went out there for the Tour de Fat (a bike festival thing).  It was a crazy adventure and tons of fun!  This past Labor Day, my cousin and I took a trip to Washington and Oregon to take our friend, Jessie, back to school in Oregon.  We camped for a night in Washington and stayed at Jessie's house in Oregon the following night.  Even though we spent almost three days straight in the car, we had SO much fun!  Plus we got to see a bunch of aunts and uncles along the way and they fed us giant, delicious meals! (always a plus when seeing family!)  This picture was taken while going over the bridge between Washington and Oregon... and my toes!)

Painting the M

I love to volunteer, and MSU provides many, many opportunities to give your time.  A few weeks ago, a group of 50 students or so, woke up nice and early and hiked up to the town's mountain "M".  (Basically, just a gigantic M painted on a mountain)  With 60 gallons of bright white paint, we gave it a nice looking, much needed facelift.  A few weeks before, the M was vandalized, painted red, yellow and green, so there was a lot of work to be done.  I was not so psyched about waking up that early on a saturday, but it was worth it for sure!  The hike was beautiful! It was a beautiful, sunny day and every volunteer was given a free T-shirt (who doesn't love free T-shirts?) and lunch!  It was a lot of fun and I met some really cool people in the process!  The M is repainted by MSU students twice a year to keep it looking bright and sparkly:-)  Even my grandpa painted the M when he was a student at MSU 62 years ago!  

~In the picture: A few guys were kiting, and took off right above the M!  They were really fun to watch!  You can see some of the red and yellow that we were painting over too. 

Chorale

MSU has an excellent music program that is open to any students regardless of their major.  This is my third year in MSU Chorale, the choir, and I love it!  We just had our first concert of the year last night and it was awesome!  I recommend participating in some sort of music ensemble!  It is a great way to break up your day, and it is a ton of fun.  I wouldn't have met some of my very best friends if I wasn't in choir.

 Every three years, the Chorale goes on tour somewhere outside of the United States.  This past May, we went to France and Spain.  It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life!  The picture was taken of the choir in France.

New at Blogging

I'm a new MSU Blogger! Whoo-hoo!