Study Abroad, Honors Program & Other Student Experiences

My roommate is in a French cinema class. As such, we are currently sitting on our living room couch, watching a film called “L’enfant.” It is about a man who sells his girlfriend’s baby. Well, that’s a great end to reading day, I suppose.

To be totally honest, I usually don’t spend reading day doing anything similar to reading. Today, after sleeping in gratefully, I went out thrift store shopping with some friends. We ended the day with some Wendy’s, some pizza, and some fudge. Clearly, my diet is shifting to account for finals week, haha.

But so far, so good! In the past, I’ve had some pretty ridiculous finals weeks, but this one hasn’t been crazy (yet). [Knock on wood]

I believe it’s partially because this past weekend was actually pretty great. On Friday, my parents drove to Arcadia to visit, and I got German food from a nearby restaurant called “Otto’s.” Turkey breast with stuffing? Thank you very much. Plus, whenever my parents visit, they send me home with allllll of their leftovers. SO I have some turkey, some chicken nuggets, and a strange bowtie-pasta-mushroom dish leftover in the fridge. I am content with all of these things.

The next day was my induction into Phi Kappa Phi, which was very exciting. Followed by Honors Convocation, where my roommate AND my parents showed up. They’re all lovely and their support is what gets me through the year :]

The rest of the day was just as great. We went to Shadfest, a festival by the Delaware river, where I picked up a cute brown ring and a pair of octopus earrings. Then, we hit up Reading Terminal Market and did some shopping and sampling, eventually grabbing a “Cool Story Bro, Tell it Again” shirt from Five Below. Thug life. I may or may not be wearing this shirt now.

Seeing my parents was lovely this weekend, but the highlight might have to go to Six Flags. My roommate Rebecca and my former roommate Pat and I had always talked about driving down an hour to Six Flags Great Adventure. So, weeks ago, we planned a whole day and just hit the road. It. Was. Awesome. We started off with Superman, then Green Lantern, then Batman, and finally Bizarro. Rebecca started off with a bit of a fear of heights and ended up insisting that we ride Batman again. Which we totally did.

Most importantly, I won a stuffed animal! I saw it while walking around and instantly KNEW I had to own it. It is a sparkly, blue squid. Its name is Squiddy. And he parties hard. It’s pretty adorable, we just keep him on the couch and cuddle with him from time to time.

Either way, Six Flags was cut off a bit short by the promise of FREE FOOD. The Honors Program had their annual Honors end-of-the-semester dinner, where we dined on Chinese and Mexican. It was delicious, obviously. I grabbed an egg roll, some dumplings, and a pile of lo mein. It felt alright based on the MASSIVE amount of walking done during the day. I had no clue how hunger-inducing it would be. Plus, we had gotten back to the dinner at 6 with just minutes to spare, so I felt like I deserved some good food.

Good food and good company, that is. My roommate and I looked on with pride as Helene talked about all the exciting programs set up for next year. One of the coolest concepts mentioned was the idea of having an adult mentor for each member of the Honors program. Everyone would go to some sort of speed-dating-like activity, where they would be paired up with a mentor. The program would have events and activities to bond the mentors and students, and it just sounds like a lot of fun. I would love to get paired up with a nearby teacher, who could give me tips about how to get a job in PA and some tips and tricks of teaching.

The dinner ended with awards for Honors members, and Helene telling us how great we all were. I didn’t win an award, but that’s okay. I give myself an award for the best Honors blog this year! Totally deserved, methinks.

And that leads me to right here, right now. Which is finishing up final bits for various classes, tying up loose ends, and trying to see every friend one last time before the summer. I’ll try to blog a few more times this semester, when I’m not sleeping up a storm or working at the Writing Center. Still, these weeks are gonna fly by, I know :]

Still holding on,

Laura